Hi,

reading Ghost Cartel last night I come by the passage where the Corporate Court vote for the action against Kong Orchid and the Tempo dealing. I noted that Horizon was the only corporation to vote AGAINST the action.

If you consider that the meta-plot behind the tempo diffusion is just shooting : HORRORS attempting to enter Earth (hell, even the free spirit described would make a very good horoï in the other game that shouldn't be named anymore) . So, in my mind, Horizon is developping a very similar plot on massive mind control and PR. So why did they choose not to interfere ? because they are on the same side.

Another thing I thought the very fist time I came back to SR and heard about Horizon : Horizon, Horoï, Horrors... it is just too big and too evident not to be true.

Isn't Horizon supposed to be google? Also the Dawkin's group seems a little polite to be jackbooted horror thugs to me. What's wrong with the Old Big A?

or they fully realised that aztechnology isn't about to just shut down a drug trade they could take over, and they opposed it on the basis of "hey, you know what would really suck? aztechnology getting even more untraceable money and dedicated smugglers to funnel more resources into being able to try and knife us in the back while looking perfectly innocent"

Horizon is a Media Outlet as well. Cranked to 11!

If they start shutting down drug cartels, then they can't get their NovaCoke and such for the Artists!

I thought the spirits behind Tempo were the Primordial Arboreals. Linked to the Primeira Vaga and with a dislike of all metahumans not following a deep green agenda. (Pg. 181 Running Wild) "More like Little Shop of Horrors."

The thing about Horizon that scares me is the "consensus", it just feels too much like a Deus AI offshoot to me.

Wait, there's a Mega that was considered a "good guy"?




-k

Everyone at horizon has to get smile white™ nanites and sparkle eye™ cyber implants.

Horizon is painting itself as the "People Friendly" Megacorporation. "We're not the Faceless Bureaucrats you're used to dealing with"-types.

Lack of racism, ability to actually move up the ranks on ability rather than politics, lack of doing dick things like dissecting people for research (Or to appease your thirsty gods), not selling weapons to all sides in a conflict (Or creating conflicts in order to sell the overstock), and so on.

I bet they still have a Desert Wars team, however.

And I bet they fund Blood Sport Arena games, and Urban Brawl, Combat Bike.

Really Horizon is run by AI's.. which is why there's a lack fo racism and the ability to move up the ranks on ability. To them we're all meat popsicles.

Are you sure they're not dissecting people though?
I would expect Horizon to dissect people, and deal in BTL specialty markets.

If Horizons is run by AI I bet they are Dissonance AI, the closest things to Shedim and Horoï.

Heck, I bet that the super-AI that dominate Horizon is Artificer in disguise, carefully planting traps in their programs and addictig runners to their emotitoys by luring them to the dark power of the force.

I bet the true Horizon slogan is "We put the Matrix in Matrix 2.0".

Ooh Artificer..
He's certainly well suited for that kind of stuff.

Not everything has to be horrors though.

Still, some of the horrors were well known for being subtle and long thinking, sometimes spending decades slowly worming their way into the hearts and minds to disable defenses, and to heighten the nourishment/enjoyment.

We have examples of Horrors caught in Caer's unable to leave because the magic levels outside were not high enough. Dragons hibernated during the low magic times. I don't find it unbelievable that some Horrors could have remained in caers trapped while the magic receded, and are now slowly waking up.

It's kaers, not Caers. Still, I don't think that Named Horrors are able to exist anywhere in the 6th World yet.

Why not?
Dragons Can.
And yeah, I haven't played in a decade (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) or so.. and didn't have the books in front of me. Forgive me for spelling it phonetically

Dragons aren't extradimensional - Horrors are.

Toxic Spirits?
Bug Spirits?

There are meta-plane spirits already around.

Yes, I think that 99.9% of the horrors are probably unable to cross the distance to Earth's Manasphere.. yet.
But I could see some having been caught here because of blood magic rituals performed during the 4th World.

We saw that with the tzitzimine in the Dragon Heart trilogy that it required a bridge made through blood magic to get them over to the right metaplane. I'm figuring the Horrors are coming from planes beyond that of even insect spirits - Toxics are just regular spirits corrupted by the toxic background in areas. I don't really consider those that metaplanar.

Could be there's still a few kaers closed off. Heck, might even have one or two in the Deep Lacuna. I would've thought most of them snuck out in the Fourth World, and went back home during the Fifth.

{If it isn't clear from the text, the following is conjecture only}

The Arboreals in Ghost Cartels are merely one tendril in an intricate plan devised by Gaia herself to protect the Earth from the coming invasion. All of Gaia's children are beloved to her, and expendable in the greater scheme. This includes us. Gaia lives. Gaia remembers. Gaia plans.

This particular tendril has created and continues to create thousands upon thousands of vessels ready to receive Her powerful agents and become warriors in the cause. Look for other Primordial Spirits to be working for the same cause.

Possession is not the only way to control the dominant species on Earth. Their own constructs: culture, entertainment, Matrix technology, can be used to control and focus them. It doesn't matter how many of Gaia's children die. It matters that some survive the invasion to regenerate the Earth. If you want to see a human mythological construct that may represent what is to come, look no further than Ragnarok, of the Norse. Hidden within the folds of the Great Tree, a pair of humans survive to carry on after the great War destroys everything.

There are two separate adventures, and the intro story in the main Earthdawn book.

They show a horror that's trapped inside a Kaer. The Earthdawn book it's because the entire population of the Kaer did a blood ritual sacrificing /everyone/ to block the Horror from being able to leave. Now, perhaps when the 5th world kicked in and magic disappeared completely then that ritual would have died, and the horror either went home, or poofed into non-existence because the magic level was too low to support it. Or, it's still stuck in said Kaer.

The others story talk about Magic levels being higher and 'pooled' in an underground Kaer. The horror was stuck inside the Kaer because the magic level was high enough to support it in the Kaer, where as it would (not sure what happens to a Horror that is in a low magic area that can't support it) 'poof' for lack of a better word, if it went outside.

Dragon Lairs were protected with powerful magics protecting them from the horrors (mostly) and also allowing them to hibernate in even lower magic times. The Dragons of the 4th World (and before) reawakened in the 6th world. Somehow they were able to hibernate in a way that they were protected from the ebb of magic. (I admit, I completely ignore the stupid Immortal Elves who really should not have been moving around during the 5th age.)

And is that so bad? Technologically augmented mind-linking is within the realm of SR tech; you'd expect it to be explored a lot more openly. Deus pioneered one form, out of what it perceived as necessity for its survival. Now that its survival isn't threatened by methumans and its mind linked into a mass of methumans, it makes sense that it would do everything it can to aid in the long term survival or metahumanity. Which granted, might include some degree of pacification, but since education and propaganda are easier ways to do that than violence...
Chances are the link goes both ways, as well. What makes metahumans happy, might well make Deus v2.0 (or whatever is running Horizon) happy.

Horizon isn't really that different from any other corp despite their friendly image. I mean look at, I think it's p36 of the Seattle Sourcebook. A Horizon exec terminates his assistant in the middle of a tense standoff/hostage negotiation just because "your HIP score has been tanking lately." If that's not cold, I don't know what is.

I was thinking
What if Deep Resonance is a new Modernized Uphandal, and Deep Dissonance is Artificer?

As said before, the mana level is likely not high enough to support the existence of Named Horrors, despite your theory about Dragon lairs/ hibernation and pockets of high man level in some kaers (which is possible, but not the rule).

They're not dissecting peoples - Aztechnology has too much of an edge in that market segment to make competietion anywhere close to profitable. What they're dissecting is minds. Find how people think and how to influence it, that's were the real money is and where Horizon has pooled it's assets...

You know, we don't know that Horizon is run by an AI. We have hints, yes, but it could be a number of other things.

Hell, it could be the bugs again, trying a different technique after the Universal Brotherhood fell apart...

Has there been anything about Lofwyr working hard to fight against the Horrors? Because he was righteously pissed that Horizon got a seat on the Court (I don't remember where I read that but I know I did).