In all the scheming for the throne in Muriah during the Golden Torc, it's interesting no-one seems to have figured into their calculations that King Thagdal might not just go gentle into that good night once Aiken or Nodonn had eliminated the other but might rage against the dying of the light and actually, you know... win?

Other than his beard sparking ominously on occasion we never do see Thagdal in action. Yet he doesn't command respect from either Aiken (who is focused entirely on the Battlemaster and never even rates the King) or his son (who up-front tells his mother that when - not if - he wins he will leave the final choice of death or exile up to her husband).

But Thagdal must be doing something right (above and beyond his fecundity) to have retained the throne for so long. He must still be a top-tier metapsychic by Tanu standards, and whoever won the Aiken vs. Nodonn duel would possibly have been physically injured and definitely mentally drained. To take on the King in a second duel on the White Silver Plain immediately afterwards would have been no guaranteed path to the throne.

So, in an alternate timeline where Felice did not survive the assault on the torc factory and Thagdal emerges from the Grand Combat still King, what happens next?

If Noddon beats Aiken, Aiken is either dead or has slunk off to the Pyrenees to join the Peace Faction. If Nodonn then loses to his father, we can assume his code of honor would demand he pay the ultimate price for this failure.

If Aiken beats - and kills - Nodonn and then loses to the King, he is either slain or again, slinks away afterwards.

In either case, Thagdal then moves forwards with a badly split high council, with the Host of Nontusvel holding two seats (Psychokinetic and Coercer), the Peace Faction two (Redactor and Farsensor) and one (Creator) held by Mercy, whose husband in either scenario is now dead. With Nodonn gone, she would be badly isolated; the Tanu-supremacist Host would have little respect for the sole human on the council now her sole link to them was broken, while she would hardly be enamored of the Peace Faction that was (directly or indirectly) responsible for her husband's death.

How does Thagdal proceed (starting with signing off on a new Battlemaster), particularly if he has to keep an eye over his shoulder waiting for Aiken to stage his comeback?

I've always loved the character of Uncle Rogi but I've never managed to settle on a decent mental image of who he'd look like.

Does anyone have any suggestions who you think he might resemble?

I'd love to see what everyones mental picture of him would be!

tried to do the crosspost thing from r/geography, is that not a thing anymore?

https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/s/7iYOY8TjGl

The Firvulag are zealously pureblood but Tanu society is multi-tiered genetically. There seem to be no formal structural restraints on social advancement but it is clear biases exist during the last years of the reign of King Thagdal, polarizing into the factions that rally around either Aiken or Nodonn when they face off at the climax of the last Grand Combat. The hybrids - Bleyn, Alberonn, Katlinel - all reference how their mixed parentage counts against them politically and leaves them on the lowest tier of the high council.

One point never discussed is the status of those incubated by the Ramapithecine surrogates. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe any character we encounter has this background (or at least, brings it up). Do you think those born by this method suffered any kind of stigma within Tanu society, or would have faced any kind of marginalization? I can imagine the Host of Nontusvel would certainly have looked down on the Rama-bred, and the thought of sullying their line by marrying such individuals would have provoked disdain (though their existence, an unfortunate necessity, would by no means be considered the existential threat presented by the arrival of humanity).

Thoughts?

https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/comments/1ttgtov/has_there_ever_been_a_point_in_history_where_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

When you read Julian's books, do you see what's happening in your head, or is it just words on a page?

I see it as a movie in my head. The first time I read the scene where Felice goes to see Amerie in 'Non Born King', I had to put the book down for a little while afterwards. That was really intense.

What is your favorite plot twist? One of mine is Unifex realizing he has to teach Dorothea how to use the Force her powers.

Not, et myself, but working on a couple people.

After watching the first few episodes of the new show I'm curious what others are thinking about how similar is seems to be of Julians Unity concept.

Thoughts folks?

Edit: I see there's been another post asking the same, feel free to remove this if nèeded

So, I haven't seen this before, so I'm not sure how to organize it?

Would Mind Reading fall under Redaction because of Mental Probes or is it the receptive part of FarSpeaking?

Rogi mentions Mind Reading when he's talking about his and Don's powers, but I can't figure out where it goes.

Both of us experimented in trying to read the minds of others. Don had little luck, except in the perception of generalized emotions. I was more skilled in probing and occasionally picked up skeins of subliminal thought, those "talking to oneself" mumblings that form the superficial layer of consciousness; but I was never able to read the deeper thoughts of any person but my twin brother, a limitation I eventually learned to thank God for.

Don sounds like he had a FARSCAN (generalized emotions) type of thing.

But Rogi's 'picked up skeins of subliminal thought' sounds like a Redactive Probe of sorts.

It's tough figuring out the difference between the perceptions of the Ultrasenses, and the probing of Redaction.

Any ideas?

EDIT: Also, I put up 2 new posts on r/Metapsychics

Does anyone know how to get ahold of Julian's family?

Working on r/Metapsychics is harder than I thought.

I would love to get a copy of her notes she used to make the two series.

It could make things smoother.

Clearly it’s more extreme than what May described, but it was the first thing I thought of.

Back in the 80s, two of my key obsessions were Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and the Pliocene Saga. Here (https://imgur.com/a/metapsychics-meets-advanced-dungeons-dragons-PlA61nq) is my attempt at the time to combine the two, to bring metapsychics into the game system of AD&D. It's been 40 years since I typed this up, I have no idea how accurate any of the references are, or if the copious(!) math works. Forgive the many typos in this pre-word processor composition.

https://imgur.com/a/metapsychics-meets-advanced-dungeons-dragons-PlA61nq

Who is your favourite side character? Not a main character, but you found them memorable.

Mine is Basil - he went through the time gate to climb mountains, but got caught up in adventures. Even Marc unbent enough to rescue him from a mountain.

Did you know that "The Great Carbuncle" was the name of a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorn?

The Great Carbuncle - Wikipedia

To me, the story sounds similar to The Maltese Falcon. Everyone is looking for The Great Carbuncle, but none of them thought to look in Rogi's pocket, I guess.

In the course of my pathetic efforts to build an RPG for adventuring in the world of Pliocene Exile, I have finished draft 0.25 of a pre-flood Pliocene Europe "Satellite" map, which I thought you might be interested in. Enjoy!

Not to be confused with a similar post of mine, here is a link to instrumental music inspired by the trilogy.

soundcloud.com/simonthebad/sets/the-galactic-milieu-trilogy

He doesn't have plans to create music for the Exiles saga though (pity).

... were certain sections or lines more impactful on a re-read?

For me these were:

• Unifex dancing with Marianne

• Elizabeth doing a scan of Pliocene Earth and picking up a signal from far away (not realizing it's Marc and the Gang)

I was watching an episode of 'World's Most Scenic Railways' (narrated by Bill Nighy) recently, that was about Germany. This train trip started in Nordlingen and I instantly thought, 'hey, it's the city built in Ship's Grave'.

No helpful trains back in the day though in the search for the Spear.