Ehran the Scribe gave a speech to the young elven technologists in 2051 (I think). Although bits and pieces have been published in various SR books, I'd like to see the full transcription. Anyone know where it is? Ancient History?

Never mind; I did a google search and found it in 5 seconds. I should've done that before posting; sorry.

link it. some of us are lazy!

Lazy is right!

I'm new to computers, and don't know how to link, but here's the addy:

www.amurgsval.org/shadowrun/imports/cycleOFMagic.html

if that does not help, go to google.com and type in "ehran the scribe""speech" (use the quotation marks). It should be the first site to come up.

Beat ya!

<url=http://wherever.com/>Whatever You Want To Label It As</url>

That's the code to add links on most forums. You just have to replace the <>s with []s.

Well done, [FONT=Arial]morkhanit.[COLOR=blue].

oops. just kidding, BTW.

Funny he doesn't add, oh and by the way midway through a literal hell dimension will open and make war across the world in an apocalyptic fury.

????

He's referring to the immortal's conspiracy to not tell anyone about the next Scourge.

Ah, yes. I never could quite figure why the IEs and GDs were so hell bent on keeping that secret....is it just that they don't think (meta)humanity can deal with the situation? Or do they hope to use it as a ploy for control, as the Therans did in ED?

Who would believe them?

All the more reason not to keep it secret. Especially considering all the archaelogical sites they could encourage people to explore to prove the claims.

If you were one of less than a score of people (in the case of the IEs) who have lived for thousands of years, would you readily advertise that fact?

For someone like a dragon? What, we're supposed to believe they were all born in 2011?

No, but then again I did specify IEs.

At least one of them is particularly proficient on the Matrix. Shouldn't be that hard to post various anonymous datafiles and essays on the topic either.

I can tell you this already, if it ever comes up that it's happened before and if the existance of immortals comes to bear, they're digging their own grave by not saying a word. Dragons as much as IEs.

I still maintain that a cabal of antique Elves and their Dragon cronies would not be believed. Their warnings would fall on deaf ears, and even worse, they would be widely suspected of having an unseen agenda ... probably to take over the world (because it would be true, and some of them would like that very thing).

As opposed to leading the most powerful megacorporation in the world? As being elected president of one of the world's (former) super powers? As opposed to masterminding the creation of the Tir nations? As opposed to magic returning to the world, and even having at least two of the immortals (Ehran and Dunkelzahn) stating that it is a cycle?

Yeah, all that's way more believable than saying something along the lines of, "Oh, and at the height of the previous magic cycle, a great evil burst through to our world and nearly wiped out metahumanity. You may find evidence of this at [insert locations of known kaers and whatnot here]." Yeah. That's definitely way harder to swallow than people turning into orks and trolls spontaneously and all the other craziness that happened 60 years previously.

Tir Tairngire requires military service. Celedyr has a AA corp that has huge tech and magical development programs. Lowfyr's got S-K. Ryumyo has freaking Japan, and Lung has msot of China. There's going to be serious magical groups there. Just because they're not advertising doesn't mean they're not working on it.

A perfect example : Ares

If I remember correctly, in Worlds Without End Aina speculates that the reason Alachia won't help is because during times of great panic and upheaval, it is a perfect oppurtunity for her to seize power. In other words, what is bad for metahumanity (the scourge) represents a chance for the immortals to assume their "rightful place".

Yes, because the security of the world is solely in the hands of a handful of immortals. Thank God we have a dozen people protecting us with their cock-stroking fun and petty interpersonal squabbles!

I mean, the dragons (and, arguably, some IEs) from the Second World did such a great job protecting the world the last time around.

Wait, is that sarcasm I detect from Doc Funk!? Noooo. It couldn't be. *shock*



Seriosuly though, Aina's a what, 14th-15th circle nethermancer? My money's on her long before any SR mage helping out when things get nasty. Knowledge is power and all that.

Besides that , it was the Rites of Protections and the Dragon's Lairs that saved at least the Barsaive region and all the regions in the Theran Empire last time. Gives soem credence that those two dozen or so beings could make a large difference next time around. Even with Dunk's arguement aobut hiding not being enough this time.

One of these days, human civilization is going to end. If the sun doesn't get us as it burns out, the heat death of the universe certainly will. There is no way to avoid it. And nobody really cares. No one is out there working on a way to save human civilization from the sun's natural lifecycle. He don't have colonies on Alpha Centauri. We should have colonies on Alpha Centauri. We could have colonies on Alpha Centauri. But we don't. Why done we? Because it is expensive. It is expensive and the sun's destructive death-throes are millions of years away and we, in our infinite stupidity, believe that this is a long time.

Everybody dies, but few people know when they will die. This uncertainty allows us to delude ourselves into believing that we are immortal. Even when death seems inevitable, most people are able to hold onto the belief that everything will work out in their favor. The same is true for metahumanity. No one is preparing for the sun's destruction or researching ways to survive the Heat Death. It'll happen, but it seems so far away that people can pretend that it won't.

The Scourge, is the same. No one will prepare for something that is 2000 years away. No one will prepare for something that is 1000 years away no one will prepare for something that is 100 years away no one will prepare for something that is 50 years away. No one will prepare for something that is 20 years away. A few people will prepare for something that is 10 years away. Some will prepare for a disaster that is 5 years away. More will prepare a year in advance. Most will be eaten.

The Immortals have the experience to know that 2000 years is just a blink of the eye. The rest of metahumanity has short enough sight that they won't spend money preparing centuries in advance, preparing for something that won't happen until long after their children's children's children's children have faded from life and from memory, until long after every existing human nation and endeavor has crumbled into dust. So the immortals can lie to them and silently guide them, letting them think that their endeavors are being made for immediate rewards, rather than for the faint hope of an unimaginable far-future civilization's survival.

Besides, if we did prepare, what would we do? Dunk says that metahumanity cant' hide. That we have ot be ready to fight. So what are we going to do, stock pile weapons and train for 2,000 years? The (meta)human race would likely wipe it's self out before the horrors showed up. The Ultimate Defense from the Horrors! Self Annihilation!

And of course, the idea comes from some lady in the Tir Na Nog court at the last minute.

I don't know, blowing myself up in order to turn my corpse into a magical item of immense power and then binding my soul to a reanimated mechanical corpse doesn't sound like the solution to my problems.

No, clearly I need to blow up OTHER people, turn their corpses in to powerful magical artifacts, and then bind their spirit to a reanimated mechanical corpse to DO MY BIDDING.