gorgenmast

Crusader Kings, A game of Thrones

Woops. Disregard this, please.

Crusader Kings, A game of Thrones

Would anyone be opposed to my playing as an individual character?

Precipice of War - We Write Under The Sign Of The Goat

Speaking of terrifying and brutal - we Spanish-Ethiopian War now

Precipice of War - We Write Under The Sign Of The Goat

Madrid, Spain

Alfonso Sotelo - strongman of the Spanish Republic - strode with purpose down the corridor of the Hall of the Republic. Clacking of his leather dress shoes against marble tile echoed through the cavernous hall and beat a martial rhythm to which his entourage bodyguards and of assorted goons marched. Behind him they traded folders and parlayed in hushed, hastened tones; preparations made ahead of the words their Prime Minister would soon declare before the whole of the Earth. Sotelo shared none of their concern.

Suited guards standing at rigid attention on either side of a doorway nodded respectfully as their head of state approached. From beneath the threshold, the dull roar of a gathered crowd could be plainly heard. Sotelo stopped before the threshold and took a brief pause, collecting his thoughts as his fingers wrapped around the handle. His shoulders rose and fell as he took one last deep breath. He siezed the handle and drew open the door, leaving his entourage behind as he stepped outside to make history.

Beyond the doorway was a bannistered patio overlooking the parkland of the grounds; an empty platform of tile and mortar save for a vacant podium at the fore that beckoned Sotelo forward. On the manicured grounds beneath, a throng of camera-wielding onlookers leveled their lenses and took aim at Sotelo as he stepped outside. A thousand lightning-flashes of white light greeted the Prime Minister as he approached the podium. Camera apertures snapped shut again and again, joining together with the polite applause of ten thousand onlookers and journalists. Crews representing the televised networks honed the lenses of their tripod-mounted cameras as their Prime Minister took to the podium decorated not with the coat of the Second Republic as would be expected - but that of Alfonso Sotelo's administration: a red shield emblazoned with a white lion.

"Spaniards," Sotelo began, gripping the podium and pulling himself to the triad of microphones pointed up to his mouth. His cold eyes scanned about the gathered throng, immediately squelching the applause. "Italians, Portuguese, Maltese, French, Prussians, Americans - and all people that desire a just world - I thank you for joining me today. Whether you stand here in the very nexus of this great nation, or instead listen by radio from some far-flung post on the very fringe of the world, I thank you all for joining me for the passing of this moment into history... This watershed moment that will be remembered henceforth for as long as history is written down.

"Today is a day four years in the making. Since the day of my inauguration, I have lost much sleep to see that the efforts of the coming days came to pass - this endeavor born from the dark days in the summer of 1976. That black August, where Marxist fanatics - brutes who attempted through sadistic means what they could not accomplish through the channels of democracy - so callously ended the lives of three hundred of our countrymen, destroyed the very center of governance of our nation, and in so doing stole from us the greatest statesman Spain has ever seen.

"For four years, we have remembered our dear Miguel Tejero, but on this day, we avenge him!"

Applause erupted from the audience at this juncture, putting Sotelo on hold as he held his leveled hands out, signalling for quiet once more.

"Today is the day that the Republic takes the offensive against the communist threat. As I speak, our grand Armada has positioned itself off the coast of North Africa and begins now its assault against an expeditionary force of the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire. In a bid to expand their socialist sphere, an Ethiopian army has moved in recent days to claim Egypt - leaderless and adrift in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire - to lay claim to their northern neighbor. Today the battle has been joined."

"The Republic will tolerate the presence of a socialist state on its periphery no longer - the zenith mark of global communism is today, from now on it shall recede across the globe as in Africa. From this day forward, the armed forces of the Second Spanish Republic have been wholly committed to the destruction of the House of Yohannes and the liberation of Africa from socialist meddling. The hour for diplomacy and negotiation has passed; the might of our Republic's armed forces takes the place now of bargaining and talk."

"And to those sympathizers of Marx - puppets of the Chairman Hou - know that nowhere on this Earth will you be safe from the wrath of a vengeful Spain. The hour of your reckoning has come at long last - and we will be the ones to administer it."

Golondrina, Port Fuad, Egypt

Klaxons rang through the interior of the cruiser, sending soldiers bursting forth from their cabins into winding hallways of riveted bulkheads and metal. Boots rumbled down the grated floors as they coursed through the vessel's insides like rats scurrying from a sinking ship. Red strobelights washed over the faces of the vessel's security detail - among which was the fresh Ejercito recruit Luis Morazan. Red light illuminated a worried visage as he made for the sunlight at the end of the corridor.

No sooner than Luis stumbled out into the harsh white light of the Egyptian sun, he was directed by a shouting deck officer to the prow, where the rest of his squad had taken up position along the waist-high extension of the hull that demarcated the edge of the deck. Luis fell in alongside his companion Hector and a smattering of deckhands - all distinguishable from the Ejercito soldiers by metal flack jacket draped over their chests.

"This is it, cabron!" Hector grinned, jabbing Luis in the side with his elbow. "We get to see some fucking action!"

Luis gave a weak and unconvincing smirk before glancing out to the scene playing out around him. Beyond the water, a little less than a mile away, the twin ports of Said and Fuad smoldered - evidence of the battle between the Ethiopians and the forces of whatever Egyptian warlord had assumed control of this swathe of the former Ottoman Empire. Columns of black, acrid smoke joined the minarets of the the Port Fuad Mosque in reaching into the hazy, azure sky. And betwixt the two ports, straddling the Suez Canal and the path of the Spanish armada, was a single warship anchored defiantly in place - her guns pointed at the great flotilla lumbering toward it.

The Aksum, Luis had heard it called, was all that stood between the Spanish Armada and the coast of the Ethiopian heartland. The fifty warships of the Armada could have reduced the lone Ethiopian ship into a hunk of scrap at the bottom of the canal without the slightest difficulty. And that - Admiral Santin seemed to believe - was exactly what the Ethiopians wanted. The canal as it was could only barely accommodate the draught depth of the heavy Spanish destroyers or the mighty aircraft carrier that served as the Armada's flagship: La Ira de Dios. A sunken wreckage across the floor of the canal would render it impassible to anything heavier than a dingy for months, forcing the Armada to backtrack across the Mediterranean and steam across the entire coast of Africa - giving the Ethiopians a month and a half or more to prepare their defense. If the Spanish were to attack from the Red Sea - the Aksum had to remain intact.

The Ethiopian ground forces that had taken up position at the mouth of the canal, however, had no such importance to the Spanish mission. They were to be destroyed with extreme prejudice. Luis could feel the cruiser's engine rumbling under his feet; crushing waves beneath it's steel bow as diesel smoke belched forth from a smokestack amongst the radar masts and antennae. The two 80mm turrets that comprised the Golondrina's primary armaments pointed steadfastly forward, but the smaller deck guns could be heard chattering as they turned portside - toward Port Said. As they pivoted toward the cities, a pair deck officers marched by briskly pushing a cart of firearms by as they went. Wordlessly, one of the officers shoved a FE-74 assault rifle into Luis' arms and continued on down the line. The ugly, metal contraption felt greasy in his fingers and stank of gun cleaner. Luis had practiced extensively with Spain's standard issue rifle in basic training, but this was the first time had held a gun in a combat scenario. It felt so much heavier than he remembered. Beside him, Hector grinned widely as he inspected the weapon in his arms.

"Listen up!" A deck officer commanded as he strode by the Ejercito contingent and the armed deckhands. "As of 14:35 local time, the Prime Minister has issued a declaration of war against the Ethiopian Empire! The Estado Mayor has passed down orders to engage the Ethiopian armed forces or other hostile elements in Port Fuad and Port Said!

"What that means is you are to hose the shit out of anything without the God-given sense to get out of the way of our Armada!" The officer explained. "The deck guns will have the first volley - after they have fired, weapons will be free! Under no circumstances are you to fire upon the Ethiopian vessel anchored in the canal! Do I make myself clear?"

"Entendido, senor!" Was uttered in unison.

"Then lock and load!"

The FE-74s made a metallic clank as their levers were pulled forward and the safeties disengaged. Luis, upon readying his weapon, glanced up at the bridge above them. The captain was visible through the glass, looking through a telescoping eyeglass. He slapped the instrument shut and pointed at the base of a collection of tenement buildings. Luis' eyes followed his fingers and saw what he was pointing at: figures darting through alleyways and into the wharfside edifice. For the first time Luis had seen the enemy with his own eyes.

"Hostiles sighted!" Was called from the team manning the deck gun. A sweat-drenched deckhand donning a flack jacket spun a handcrank wildly, gradually lowering the cannon down to the appropriate angle - the third or fourth floor of the building. Once the gun had been aimed, the deckhands loaded the breaches with two shells the size of a fire hydrant. Screeching gulls, pops of gunfire coming from the harbor, and the sound of waves breaking against the hull prevailed for a moment.

The calm was broken by the roar of thunder across the water. Fiery flashed burst from the deck guns of a nearby cruiser, and then the cruiser directly behind the Golondrina.

"ABRAN FUEGO!"

A deafening blast shuddered the deck of the Golondrina, and again a second later... followed shortly after by another two blasts from the battery at the rear of the cruiser. A loud ringing buzzed through his ears as he recovered his hearing - a sound followed shortly thereafter by cheerful whoops as puffs of pulverized plaster and brick came off the top of the tenement building, bringing down a large chunk of the facade in a shower of debris. All along the waterfront of Port Said, clouds of smoke were materializing as Spanish shells pummeled the last-known position of the Ethiopians.

Rolling thunder came again from across the sea, this time behind the Golondrina - a salvo so loud and so powerful that the sheer concussive force of the blasts shook Luis' insides. The destroyers had joined in the assault. Above their heads, the heavy shells whistled through the sky and then arced down, landing deeper into Port Fuad and Said. Great plumes of fire and black smoke blossomed as the heavy shells found their mark - if there was any target at all to begin with. The destroyer volley was more probably a message - the Spanish would suffer no obstacle to stand in their path.

A flicker of movement along the waterfront drew Luis' eye - an armored truck of some sort, speeding along the waterfront road. A wet hiss could be heard over the sound of crashing shells in the distance as it drove past; his eyes registered a flicker of white. Behind him, the deck officer's eyes widened and he braced himself against the metal side of the deck next to Hector.

"HIT THE DECK!" The officer screamed.

A triad of white contrails bobbed and snaked across the water toward the cruiser from the truck. Like a striking Hydra, one of the missiles fell upon the upper hull of the Golondrina, rattling the vessel to its core. Another missile weaved over the lip of the hull and planted itself down into the superstructure of the cruiser - blooming fire and smoke before raining hot scraps of steel down upon the hull. Luis ducked under the lip of the hull and covered the back of his neck as the rockets jarred the ship.

"OPEN UP ON THAT TRUCK!" The deck officer screamed hysterically as he scrambled back to his feet. Hector planted himself back onto his feet and joined the rest of his squad in firing upon the truck speeding down the road. Arpeggios of assault rifle reports rang out across the cruiser as the armored truck made its getaway, soon joined by both of the cruiser's deck guns - eager for revenge. Mushrooms of pulverized asphalt sprang up on the heels of the truck as it drove away, eliciting small arms fire from behind the corners of tenement buildings. Splashes of water and metal pinging against the hull announced to the Spanish that they themselves were under attack. The armed deckhands and Ejercito squads quickly reverted their attention and returned fire on the Ethiopian fireteams across the harbor.

Luis, however, had not fired a single shot - and the deck officer had noticed that he had only come up from cover to peek out at the situation before ducking back into cover. The officer seized Luis by the collar.

"Whose side are you on?!" The deck officer demanded, choking the panicked Luis.

"Your side!" He gasped. The officer dragged Luis up to his feet by his collar.

"Then act like it!" He barked, pointing out across the water. "Fucking shoot something!"

Luis nodded shakily and unleashed a string of bullets across the water. His heart wanted to explode every time a bullet clanged against the cruiser's hull, but fear of the officer kept him firing upon his Ethiopian adversaries. A few meters away from Luis, one of the deckhands caught an Ethiopian bullet to the shoulder, sending him to the deck screaming and clutching at a bloody crater beside his neck. The officer came to his side and flagged a medic down, who immediately set about applying battle dressing. Luis had never seen so much blood in his life. His heart palpitated and his stomach nearly wrung out his lunch onto the deck - and he had only been at war for a little under ten minutes.

As he peered out from behind the lip of the hull to fire, the nearest deck gun exploded with another two reports. Before his very eyes, the deck gun shell hit an abandoned car - obliterating it in a fireball of ignited gasoline. At least two Ethiopians had taken cover behind the car, and Luis saw as both of them ran out from behind cover - each totally ablaze. They ran across the waterfront road toward the harbor. One made it and landed in the water with a foamy splash, the other was less fortunate and caught a bullet in the leg. The burning fighter fell to the pavement, still alive, still burning profusely. The African soldier made a dogged attempt to crawl to the seawall, but the flames soon overtook him and snuffed his life out.

Luis' stomach could not handle the sight of the smoldering man in the distance. Vomit poured down over his chin, and the the fresh recruit collapsed to the deck and fainted.

Exile: A Sci-Fi RP On an Untamed World

Vajra Mountains, Unorganized Interior Territories

((Suggested listening))

Contrails of clean, white vapor rolled off the edges of a gunship's fuselage as it burst forth from a cottony cloudbank, leaving quivering beads of moisture rolling off the hull in the wind. A few hundred meters beneath the tri-jet dropship was a landscape characterized by what might arguably be the most exotic and striking terrain any human had ever seen: the Vajra Mountains. Jagged arches formed massive bridges over deep, mist-veiled chasms beside colossal hoodoos of chalky white rock marbled with swirls of pinks and oranges reached toward the clouds. All but the sheerest of rock faces of this jagged landscape were absolutely carpeted in a dense mat of thick jungle foliage. Surrounded by this chaotic mix of rock formation were massive plateaus from which disgorged thousands of gallons of water from cliffside waterfalls. To call this collection of rock formations a mountain range was grossly inaccurate - human vocabulary was unprepared to describe what this kind of terrain was, as nothing similar to it existed on their homeworld. Technically, the Vajras were a vast expanse of karst-like terrain; if the Cloud Forests of New Guinea, the Badlands of the Dakotas, and the Mountains of South China could have somehow been combined, the result might have been something with a cursory similarity to the Vajra Mountains.

Out of the windows and beyond the open loading bay of the gunship, every passenger aboard the aircraft stood in awe - enrapt by the sheer alien-ness of the landscape rolling past underneath them. Every passenger, that is, but Sofija Sobral. She instead scrunched herself into the seat and stared across the fuselage with a nauseated grimace across her face. Her discomfort attracted the attention of a monstrous man with a fluttering mane of blonde dreadlocks decked in anti-ballistic leather armor - the protection detail, no doubt. He slung the beast of a gun in his arms over his shoulder and down his back as he stepped over to the xenobiologist.

"Yo, lady... you gonna be aroight?" He asked, giving away a distinct Afrikaner dialect.

A pale-faced Sofija trembled silently in her restraints and gave a swift nod. It was apparent that the armed guard did little to soothe her nerves, and so the Soufrikan giant left her with a shrug. With the giant firearm cradled in both arms - some sort of automatic grenade launcher - the guard scanned the horizon and the mountains below for any sign of trouble. The very fact that the guard's presence was required for this routine flight was a reminder that the so-called Safe Zone could be quite deadly, particularly here in the remote south-central interior. Large swathes of the Brahma's inhabited region remained as undeveloped and wild as any wilderness outside the Zone's borders, especially when unfavorable terrain impeded human colonization as was the case here. Some surface highways had been installed to connect Nai Kolkatta with nearby states such as Ephyra and Prachapadri along corridors where the jungles had been tamed and the terrain smoothed by earthmoving equipment. Flight, however, was the only way to reach isolated Kangchai on the southernmost fringe of the Safe Zone. And even here, high above the jungle, one was not entirely safe; the Mayura still ruled these skies.

Erko too stood near the cusp of the rear bay - a respectful distance behind Stanzo and the guard. Wind coursing through the fuselage ruffled and mussed the peachfuzz coat of fine, downy fur that covered his body. Seeing the mountains from this height was the most amazing thing he had ever witnessed. Down below him, in that untamed maze of jungle and stone, there were Tkrai who had never experienced first contact with the humans - perhaps they knew absolutely nothing of these men from the stars. He imagined at least some of them must now be gazing up to the skies in ignorance at the silver creature rumbling through the skies above their heads as Erko looked down upon them. His own kind so far beneath him seemed so primitive and backwards to him from this height. He imagined this was how the humans thought of him: even the most erudite and reformed of the Batmen were barely distinguishable from the stone-cutting savages in the jungle below in the eyes of a human.

Stanzo shoved Erko aside as he stepped back from the edge of the rear bay, supporting his suspicions about humanity's view of the Batmen. "Watch where you're standing." Stanzo huffed. "You could've bumped me off the edge if we'd hit turbulence. Be more careful."

"Forgive me, it will not happen again." Erko squeaked. Stanzo ignored the Tkrai and continued over to the interior of the fuselage, plopping himself down into the seat alongside Sofija's.

"Looking a little green in the gills, ma'am." Said Stanzo with a concerned smile. "I wish you would've said something about being dropship-sick before we left. Travel by air is a big part of the job."

"I'm not sick." Sofija corrected. "It's just anxiety..."

"Anxiety? You afraid some critter is going to nab us out of the sky? C'mon now, Eyck here's got our back." Stanzo nodded over to the armor-clad guard, scanning across the horizon. Sofija shook her head solemnly.

"I had a bad experience on my last flight."

"A bad experience?" Stanzo teased. "Just because you had some shitty pilot once doesn't mean every dropship ride is a near-dea-..."

"Orpheus."

"I see..." Stanzo acknowledged somberly, recalling stories of the failed defense and evacuation of that planet in the wake of the Listener attack. "Well, this will be nothing like that. We'll get to Kangchai safe and sound. It'll all be alright.

A commotion outside the aircraft drew the attention of every passenger onboard. A thousand wingbeats stirred the air around the gunship as a flock of small airborne creatures pressed in, drawn to the howl of the jets. Stanzo and the other Foundation workers looked to the armed guard at the rear of the craft for reassurance who seemed totally unfazed by the great flock of flying aliens.

"Mantas." Eyck declared, pointing to one of the half-meter wide creatures with the barrel of his firearm. They had great, yellow-blue wings that beat in much the same way as a butterfly's - though they seemed to bear more resemblance to the rays of earth for which they were apparently named. A mass of tentacles for feeding were pursed up into a rigid beak during flight extended forward from their head. "They just loike the sound of the engines. Totally 'armless."

No sooner than he had relieved the passengers, the air quavered with a long, bellowing screech. Deep and grating - it immediately drained the color from the faces of everyone on board. Erko's ears twitched and vibrated in pain - a sign that the sound was much louder on frequencies inaudible to humans. The Mantas sensed it as well; their smooth, undulating flock immediately scattered into a thousand directions.

The guard's position stiffened as he leveled the grenade launcher into the sky - flipping the safeties off and activating the holosight in three swift, fluid motions. His body language confirmed what the passengers feared.

"Hunting call!" Eyck howled. "Poilot, get us some altitude! We need'a put some distance between us and the flock!"

Beyond the Safe Zone, Three Months Prior

"We should have cut their heads free from their filthy necks the moment their kind stepped upon this world!" A Tkrai chattered in his native tongue, throwing a clenched fist above the glowing coals of the fire. Numerous other batmen shouted out in furious solidarity - their clenched fists cast flickering shadows against the walls of the cavern.

"That is your feeling? Why do you say it only now that they have taken your people? I have said precisely this for the past one hundred alok." A withered Tkrai, whose scrunched face was decorated with a knotted beard, snarled in reort. "You, Maato, had no quarrel with the humans until now. You traded your friendship for their guns, which you in turn pointed against us Junker. See now how the humans treat their friends."

"Toonak has the right of it! Let the humans butcher the Maato like the traitors they are!"

"Such nerve for a Lohtak to call anyone a traitor!" Another angry voice screeched out from across the fire. "We Shamari still remember the treachery your clan meted out against ours!"

The discussion rapidly devolved from that point on. A dozen shouting matches in four Tkrai languages reverberated against the damp rock of the cavern. Vines from the surface reached down from a dim shaft of bluish sunlight above the dwindling council fire. Batmen clambered along the vines and hung down with bouncing energy over the fire, observing the ten-way argument their chieftains had descended into and occasionally chiming in with their own demeaning chirps.

The argument was becoming increasingly aggressive. One of the chieftans around the fire had even taken a heavy stone into his slender fingers and raised it menacingly, threatening to crush it against one of his rivals' skulls. Shouts had devolved into unintelligible screeches of hostility - their diaphragms quavered with uncontrollable fury. This council was seconds away from turning into a bloodbath.

Exactly as planned.

"Look at yourselves!" A deep, warm voice commanded at last from the shadows of the clammy grotto. Batmen were known to possess squeaky, high-pitched voices - to hear a creature that could speak so sonorously, with such command - the squabble came to an abrupt, silent halt. Was this creature the one that had arranged this council to begin with? "Look at yourselves and you will see the root of all our evils."

"Show yourself unto us!" Chief Toonak commanded the enigmatic speaker in the darkness, breaking the silence. "It is you who bid us to meet for this council? Make yourself seen!" All eyes directed themselves to the darkness beneath a dripping overhang, every ear turned to hear slow footsteps smacking against the soggy cavern floor.

Into the firelight came a positively ancient Tkrai. The fuzzy down that covered his lanky body was silvery white; numerous cuts and scars on the edges of his great ears bespoke a long and troubled life. Even so, he walked with a slow and regal dignity. Unlike Toonak, he needed no walking stick - he seemed to be in remarkable health despite his extremely advanced age.

"Who are you?" The Maato chieftan demanded.

"I am he that brought us together this day." The ancient Tkrai affirmed. "I have lived for a great many alok, more than can be remembered. I recall the state of Amuk-Tlih before the first man came from the stars and set foot upon it. And as you have - I have seen this world blighted as they arrive in ever greater numbers."

"Then you are in agreement?" Asked the Maato leader. "You have brought us here that we might come together to destroy the humans?"

"Impossible!" A chief from across the fire blurted. "If every Tkrai on Amuk-Tlih answered a warpath against the humans, we would be destroyed before we came to the line of their Safe Zone! To oppose the humans is a deathwish!"'

"You are both right... You are both wrong." Declared the elder Tkrai as he approached the fire ring; the chieftans parted away from him a respectful distance as he did.

"Every clan and tribe on this world could not hope to accomplish anything against the humans of the Safe Zone."

"How are we to oppose them? They must be stopped!"

The silver-haired Tkrai nodded. "The humans can not be fought as many clans. Since they have arrived on this world, humans and the tribes have fought, and the tribes have always lost. The humans know to pit your tribes and clans against one another. They have practiced this on their own world - making their enemies do the fighting for them. It is a clever way to fight. If we are to win, Tkrai must not fight as clans. Tkrai must fight as one."

Ears pricked upright as the gathering pressed in to hear what the silver-haired one said.

"You must not have any loyalty to any chieftain." He continued. "A single chieftan may be swayed to the humans to fight on their behalf - leading an entire people astray. Tkrai must not be loyal to their people or their cheiftan. Their only loyalty must be to Amuk-Tlih, as such, there can be no cooperation with humans."

"That will still not work!" A dissenter crowed. "We have spears and knives! Humans have railguns and gunships! How can we possibly make war against them?"

The ancient Tkrai nodded thoughtfully. "Tkrai do not know this: humans are as divided as you. The humans have their own clans and their own feuds. Just as they have turned your clans against one another, we too can make their disagreements work for us."

"On the other side of Amuk-Tlih, there is a settlement of humans - they call it 'Kartago'. There they cultivate a great hatred the humans of the Safe Zone, as the humans of the Safe Zone hate them."

"You aim to foster a feud of trangression between the Safe Zone and the men of Kartago?" Chief Toonak deduced.

"There is a word among the humans for this tactic that they have practiced for thousands of alok." The Silver-Haired elder affirmed, nodding in confirmation.

"We shall use their own 'False Flag' against them."

Reth's All-Inclusive Church

@gorgenmast: Nothing is said in the Bible concerning any "dome" or "flat world". No one ever said anything about space being a "lie by Satan" here. As far as evolution goes, here're my thoughts on that:

"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so." Genesis 1:6-7 KJV

Here's a graphic depiction of this model I found on google images that's pretty consistent with what I was told in an Introduction to the Old Testament class.

As far as evolution goes, here're my thoughts on that:

Ho lordy.

As someone that graduated with a degree in Biology from a reputable university, let me go through each of those points and tell you why they're wrong.

1) The inventor of the theory himself admitted it was wrong.

No he didn't. Charles Darwin never said anything to that effect.

2) If evolution happened, then how on earth do we have birds. If it was from desire, that wouldn't work because humans desired flight for ages and never actually grew wings and feathers. If it was from necessity, the amount of time required for said evolution would leave most species of birds extinct.

Well, I agree, you can't just 'will' something to evolve. Bird feathers evolved and become more complex as a result of more effective competition and favorable selection. Bird feathers, like reptile scales that they evolved from, are growths of epidermal keratin - the same material that comprises the majority of human skin and hair. Feathers originally grew out as a sort of peachlike fuzz on dinosaurs that helped Jurassic dinosaurs thermoregulate (stay warm). It's widely hypothesized that arboreal(tree-living) dinosaurs developed more complex feathers for gliding and flying by leaping down from the trees in the same way a flying squirrel does. This is supported by what is probably the most famous missing link fossil of all: Archaeopteryx, which shows both characteristics of both dinosaurs and birds.



This segues perfectly into your next point...

No one has found the missing link.

Yes they have. There are THOUSANDS of missing link fossils. Paleontologists have found missing link fossils between dinosaurs and birds, otter-like predators and whales, toothed whales and baleen whales, and hundreds of specimens between humans and their apelike ancestors. One of my professors and actually wrote a book devoted entirely to missing link fossils. You might consider getting a used copy and educate yourself on the topic you're trying to explain.

4) The odds of earth forming on its own and evolution happening just exactly as it supposedly did with such perfect balance to the ecosystems are so much more against it happening than the odds of Jesus fulfilling all the prophecies written about him. Laws of Physics and of Nature and whatever else scientists say describe that as time progresses, nature is going to degrade, not evolve and form from nothing. Try it yourself. Create a completely empty vacuum in a little ball and see how long it takes for something to be created from that nothing. Nothing will ever happen. So why shouldn't I believe in God if science contradicts everything, including itself, while the Bible contradicts nothing? I can see no reason.

Life is not something that is perfectly crafted for a perfectly designed planet. Life is develops through trial and error and fortunate accidents - it is not built or balanced immaculately. It is more like a gallon of water being poured into a vase - filling up little niches and spaces and equalizing itself out at the surface and forming itself perfectly to every little contour of its container. Life was not designed for this planet - it developed and molded itself to thrive on this planet.

It is true that in a closed system, entropy will prevail and ordered systems will tend to disorder as per the Second Law of Thermodynamics. But Earth is not a closed system. The biosphere of our planet is affected by solar energy from above and geothermal warmth from within. This input of energy makes it thermodynamically favorable for complex organisms to exist. The Earth is not a vacuum in a sealed ball - your analogy is not consistent with the state of the Earth's biosphere.

...Anyway, I realize you are not trying to proselytize and even if you did, I wouldn't care. I don't care what you think for yourself. If you want to believe this tripe then be my guest. But once you spout a bunch of psuedoscientific horseshit about how the world works and try to pass it off as the truth, you better believe that as a biologist I'm going to call you out on it. Also, I'd like to add that I've studied the Bible for myself - probably more rigorously than you have. Just saying.

Reth's All-Inclusive Church

I really don't understand why you fundies have such an aversion to evolution when so many other sciences and theories agree that the Old Testament is complete horseshit. The Young Earth Creationists devote all this time to trying to prove that evolution is some kind of satanist hoax or whatever, but then forget that the simple fact that humans have been to space and have satellites that orbit around the Earth contradicts the very first chapters of Genesis. The firmament cosmic model proposed in the first 10 or so verses of Genesis, where you have a flat world encased by a domelike firmament that surrounds the sky from "above waters", is obviously wrong as hell. According to Genesis, there is no space to even go to - rockets would just crash into this big dome above the world. Clearly, that's not how the sky/space works, seeing as we have a fleet of satellites whizzing over our planet that relay weather information, satellite photography, and the very telecommunications signals that make this post possible.

So why don't I see you fundies trying to boycott NASA? Clearly space is a lie by Satan to trick little children away from going to church.

Seriously, though. Why can;t you people just join the Catholics, Lutherans, etc. and agree that evolution is the only working explanation for the diversity of life on Earth?

Exile: A Sci-Fi RP On an Untamed World

Downtown, Nai Kolkata

Rising up into the alien sky from the downtown districts was Rouhani Tower - an elegant yet imposing edifice. It went skyward from a plaza of babbling fountains and manicured date palms up toward Brahmapura and tiny, pale Dhruva. To see downtown Nai Kolkata and the poorer outer quarters like Khurama Jila, it was sometimes hard to believe that the two districts were part of the same world, let alone the same city. While Khurama Jila could easily be mistaken for a city on Earth two or three hundred years ago, the heart of Nai Kolkata embodied everything that was modern. Towers sprouted from the fertile soil of downtown Nai Kolkata like a well-tended garden. Futurists of centuries past, who had predicted that cities of the future would be cold, brutalistic forests of gray geometric skyscrapers, had failed to remotely describe Nai Kolkata. The architecture of Brahma's greatest city was characterized by warm, earthy colors and free flowing, organic shapes. The great buildings of Nai Kolkata emulated the natural shapes of Earth: tree buds, seashells, pomegranates, and sand dollars among others. The Rouhani Tower was no exception; it was a mountain of polarized glass composed of concentric tiers, with each corner of the building anchored with fig-shaped cupolas. High up among the wispy clouds, the upper tiers opened along the sides with gill-like sheets - hangars for the various flavors of vertical takeoff vehicles that plied the skies of Nai Kolkata - above which the tower terminated in a pleated dome that bore resemblance to a lotus bud.

From within a glass elevator racing up to the top of the Rouhani Tower, Sofija and Erko watched as the churning nexus of the largest city on Brahma shrank before them. From nearly a kilometer in the sky, a sprawling mass of concrete and glass stretched in every direction toward the horizon with the glowing tendrils of roadway innervating the metropolis and reaching out to its very edges beyond where a hazy horizon met the sky. While Sofija had only temporarily been denied such luxuries as riding in subsonic elevators to offices in the clouds during her stint of extreme poverty, Erko could scarcely believe he was witnessing such a thing. Humans lived in decadence among the clouds in their trees of concrete and glass, Tkrai wallowed in the gutters of humanity's refuse when they allowed it. Since mankind had arrived on this world, this was how life on Brahma was; this was how the two races were to coexist.

Or perhaps not. Perhaps, Erko considered now, there was some truth to the pamphlets and other forms of human propaganda distributed through the Batmen slums. Upward mobility through hard work and cooperation with humans was possible for even the lowliest of the batmen. Batmen could make their way in a world dominated by humans. Tkrai did enjoy the fruits of this new civilization so long as they reformed themselves.

He was living proof of these this; he had made it.

Behind them in the elevator stood a well groomed and dapper fellow, grinning widely with amusement as Sofija and Erko glued themselves to the glass wall of the elevator. He chuckled to himself, causing Sofija to spin around to face him; Erko's enormous pointed ears twitched and honed in on the sound, but he remained fixed to the window.

"What's so funny?" Sofija asked as gingerly and politely as she was able. The pair and this stranger had briefly exchanged pleasantries down on the first floor as they had boarded the elevator. Even so, she had never met this man and was cautious as to not be unduly bold.

"Don't worry, it's nothing you're doing." The gentleman in the tightly-fitted khaki field jacket and navy cargo pants assured cooly. "It's that you remind me of my little girl. I swear that riding up and down these things is the highlight of her day. Practically glued to the window - a lot like you are."

"How can you not be amazed? The view from this height is incredible."

"The novelty wears off - fairly quickly actually. I take it you must be new to Nai Kolkata?"

"I suppose you could say that." Sofija admitted rather shyly, turning her face down to the buffed metal floor. In truth, she had lived in this very city for going on seven years now. But the glittering superstuctures like Rouhani Tower had been nothing but fixtures in the sky; every bit as exotic and unreachable as Brahmapura or Agni. The Nai Kolkata she had been accustomed to was one of shoddily-built tenements, wet markets, and Batmen slums. Though she was evading the whole truth, this bright, clean Nai Kolkata was indeed altogether new to her.

"Well then, welcome to the City. I realize we didn't properly acquaint ourselves." The man in field garb offered Sofija a warm smile in addition to a rough, calloused hand. "Stanzo Salares." He declared. "I'm with the Foundation. And yourself?"

She took - or at least attempted to take - the man's giant palm and shook it deftly. "I am also in the employ of the Foundation. I'm Sofija Sobral, and this is my friend Erk-"

"You are Sofija Sobral?!" Stanzo practically yelled in incredulity. "Impossible! I mean, we knew to expect you sometime this week... But I never thought that our paths would ever cross, let alone that I would run into you on an elevator! Your studies on the stresses of introduced Earth species on Orpheus laid the groundwork for what the Foundation has been trying to accomplish for the past decade! I can only imagine the kind of work we're going to accomplish with you on our team."

"Thank you, Stanzo. That's all very flattering." Sofija acknowledged. "So I take it you have a leadership role among this organization? Might you be able to tell Erko and I what will be expected of us?"

The inside of the elevator car rang with a synthetic chime as the three approached their destination. Their stomachs lurched as the elevator slowed down and eventually came to a halt on the 172nd floor. A second chime rang through the elevator as the doors slid open, allowing Sofija and Erko to follow along behind Stanzo as he led them through the home offices of the Tkrai Advocacy Foundation.

"You've come to us at a hectic time, Mrs. Sobral." Stanzo explained as he led her through a maze of cubicles. Stanzo walked at a brisk pace and failed to give the hobbling Erko the opportunity to keep pace with him. "Our primary concern at this point is Timbeross, rather predictably. Their personnel and assets have been reported well beyond the established boundaries of the Safe Districts. Orbital imagery shows that they are mobiliziing land clearing operations on a massive scale. Numerous native species - including several tribes - are in peril." Stanzo continued on, giving a rapid-paced tour of the office floors and having completely lost Erko at this point. Sofija, in her eagerness to stay attentive, forgot to allow her slower companion to keep pace.

"Then again, our office recently accepted a contract from the Directors Board of Kangchai of all places. They're requesting survey teams to determine the scope of various tribal populations to the South. Personally I don't appreciate the idea of playing scout for the scheming, slant-eyed bastards for who-knows-what, but they are paying handsomely and we do have to keep the lights on around here somehow."

"This whole process seems to be moving faster than I imagined." Sofija said hesitantly. "Isn't there paperwork that I ought to be filling out? Training or some sort of orientation perhaps?"

"Probably..." Stanzo admitted, "but that's not really my sphere. I'm more of a field supervisor. Now, I'm sure the higher-ups would love to waste our time pushing a lot of meaningless paper around and getting tangled in red tape. My philosophy, though, is that the less of that bullshit you waste time working on, the more time we can devote to endeavors that actually matter. Now, I don't really know about you, but I joined the Foundation to keep humanity from ruining another perfectly good planet. If I wanted to get mired down in a lot of paperwork, I'd have been an accountant or lawyer or something - screw that shit." Sofija nodded in tacit approval.

"Wait, a minute..." She huffed, looking from side to side for her lost companion. "Damn, where'd Erko go? Erko?!"

A few moments later, the Tkrai crawled out into the main aisle from between a row of cubicles. His great ears swiveled about toward Sofija much like a rotating satellite dish. Stanzo gave a annoyed sigh as Erko caught up with them.

"You really need to keep up. I'm trying to get you and Sofija here up to speed."

"I apologize." Said Erko dejectedly, his ears falling down in line with the back of his head - the rough equivalent of blushing among the Tkrai. "I made every effort to keep pace. I did hear most of what you said. You need not repeat yourself."

Stanzo turned away from the Tkrai to Sofija. "There is likely some forms you will need to fill out for an hour or so. But I need you to get them completed as quickly as possible. Wrap that up and meet me another 20 floors up at the hangars."

"Certainly... But what will you have us doing up there?"

"Heading out." Stanzo smiled. "We're going to need you - and Erko - in the field as soon as possible."

"Chop-chop. Go burn through that busy-work. We've got a world to save out there."

Exile: A Sci-Fi RP On an Untamed World

Well, I'm working through an admittedly dry post that's really stumped my progress in this RP. As consolation, here's some concept art of a Brahman predator to inspire some adventures. Also, it is interesting to note that it is a distant evolutionary relative to the Batmen.

Xenocinonyx atrox

Exile: A Sci-Fi RP On an Untamed World

The bitch is back.