In his will, there's 20 million for research into advanced optics, and only 10 million for educational scholarships.
Has anybody figured this out? Does it have anything to do with needing LOS for casting stuff? Or maybe casting stuff at great distances, like into space?
Full Version: What is Dunkie's thing for Optics?
That's a good question. Maybe he was afraid that the horrors are still going to come much sooner than expected so he wants to make sure humaniti has as much of a jumpstart technologically as possible.
Call me stupid, but what are these 'horrors' everyone keeps mentioning?
Sorry, but I've not bought a single sourcebook since Brainscan, and I've missed out on the past 2 game years of Shadowrun.. And I've never played EarthDawn or any of the other FASA games..
Sorry, but I've not bought a single sourcebook since Brainscan, and I've missed out on the past 2 game years of Shadowrun.. And I've never played EarthDawn or any of the other FASA games..
Horrors are the 'unbeatable enemy' from Earthdawn. Apparently they will return to the world as soon as there's enough mana to support them. They're highly magical and very difficult to kill. Go look for the recent thread on 'can we beatt the horrors'. Just search for the word 'beatt' and you'll find it.
I've actually read most of it, and though there's much talk about the 'Horrors', the entire conversation seems to assume you already know what a 'horror' is, so there's no much discussion about what they actually are..
| QUOTE (LoseAsDirected) |
| I've actually read most of it, and though there's much talk about the 'Horrors', the entire conversation seems to assume you already know what a 'horror' is, so there's no much discussion about what they actually are.. |
Well, I don't wanna derail this thread further, but I'll give a quick synopsis of what I know about "Horrors"
All I know about them is what I've gathered from this board and I've only read a SR novel with them in it. I've never played ED and I haven't read any sourcebooks with them in it. If you need more information, you can try a search for any of a plethora of the Horrors threads. (I'm starting to get sick of seeing them all! )
Horrors showed up in ED times, and it was a mess, they couldn't be beaten. People retreated to underground cave like reinforced structures called Kaers. The Horrors raped the planet until they had to go. Survivors continue developing the planet further. Fast forward to "Current" SR time, which as you may know, is referred to the 6th World, due to the cyclical nature of mana ebb and flow. When mana/magic is strong enough, the Horrors will return. Somethings, like blood magic, practiced by folks like Aztechnology accelerate the process.
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Back to optics and Dunkies' interest!
I get the impression that the people who made Dunkie's will tacked random numbers onto stuff. Assuming that Dunkie did write his will though, and not some writer employed by FASA who didn't have the machiavellian planning ability of a dragon, i think it could still make sense.
The research into optics was possibly seeded by the fact that casters need to see targets to cast spells at them. In-fact the advanced fiber-optics systems into SotA2063are possibly already the fruition of this research. Also bear in-mind that much of the 20 million
will probably go towards research grants for students doing PhDs ETC in the field of optics. Scholarships tend to be cheaper than grants: sholarships are just a money-off voucher for higher education; grants pay for someone's living expences, pay supervisor's saleries, and pay for hardware to do work on.
The research into optics was possibly seeded by the fact that casters need to see targets to cast spells at them. In-fact the advanced fiber-optics systems into SotA2063are possibly already the fruition of this research. Also bear in-mind that much of the 20 million
will probably go towards research grants for students doing PhDs ETC in the field of optics. Scholarships tend to be cheaper than grants: sholarships are just a money-off voucher for higher education; grants pay for someone's living expences, pay supervisor's saleries, and pay for hardware to do work on.
Optics are cool. Dunkie knows this.
Plus, there are always people giving money for scholarships. Maybe not enough money, but it's never bad press to give some cash to get some people through college. Optics, on the other hand, tend mostly to get attention from the people directly interested in optics as optics, not as a public relations move or attempt to gain a future employee.
~J
Plus, there are always people giving money for scholarships. Maybe not enough money, but it's never bad press to give some cash to get some people through college. Optics, on the other hand, tend mostly to get attention from the people directly interested in optics as optics, not as a public relations move or attempt to gain a future employee.
~J
| QUOTE |
| Does it have anything to do with needing LOS for casting stuff? |
| QUOTE |
| The research into optics was possibly seeded by the fact that casters need to see targets to cast spells at them. |
:nod:
Wasn't this discussed at length in the old Corporate Security sourcebook?
(ponders constructing a 360 degree vision fiber optic helmet)
| QUOTE (Velocity) |
| Wasn't this discussed at length in the old Corporate Security sourcebook? |
Do you mean LOS or Dunklezahn's interest in optics?
Couldn't optics as be laser research? I thought i heard some where that the study and development of lasers fell into that catagory. Maybe there is something to that?
| QUOTE (Velocity) |
| Wasn't this discussed at length in the old Corporate Security sourcebook? |
Yes, it was. There was a large section on control rooms with fiberoptics and mirrors designed to give a magic-user line of sight to many locations within the building.
Perhaps Dunkie was wanting to create a "sniper-nest kaer" for magic users to pick off weaker horrors from relative safety.
For the earlier poster: Horrors are essentially demons. Some are weak enough to be killed off by us, others are nigh-godlike in power. They seem to have no purpose but to destroy and corrupt, and take quite a bit of pleasure in doing so to metahumanity.
A few managed to sneak into our 6th world because of the various blood magics being used, but the actual invasion cycle has been pushed back again because of certain NPC's actions. However, it could still be moved forward again if the use of blood magic continues unabated. Metahumans are not ready to fight them yet in the current SR timeline, so they were trying to raise the mana level artificially through blood magic to get the jump on us.
Just to clarify, this topic is more about speculation as to Dunklezahn's interest in optics than feasability and methods of magical security casting rooms, etc.
You don't get a say in the matter 
Dunno. Not really sure we have enough to go on to make a guess other than just listing all the possibilities we can think of. Has the bequest been referenced at all in canon?
~J
Dunno. Not really sure we have enough to go on to make a guess other than just listing all the possibilities we can think of. Has the bequest been referenced at all in canon?
~J
| QUOTE (Dunkelzahn) |
| To VisionCrafters, I leave the sum of 20 million nuyen for research into advanced optics. |
VisionCrafters is mentionned in New Seattle page 88. It's a company from Vancouver who bought Snohomish Opticals Inc. Snohomish Opticals in turn had a reputation for their ability to develop optical devices twice faster than the competition and Mr. Glass, the decker who ensured nobody ever found out how they did that.
| QUOTE (Kesh) |
| Perhaps Dunkie was wanting to create a "sniper-nest kaer" for magic users to pick off weaker horrors from relative safety. |
Manaball them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
| QUOTE (Kagetenshi) |
| You don't get a say in the matter Dunno. Not really sure we have enough to go on to make a guess other than just listing all the possibilities we can think of. Has the bequest been referenced at all in canon? ~J |
That was just my response to the people whining about "Haven't we gone over all this before, etc, etc"
In fact, you've been one of the most true to the thread subject;
| QUOTE |
| Optics are cool. Dunkie knows this. Plus, there are always people giving money for scholarships. Maybe not enough money, but it's never bad press to give some cash to get some people through college. Optics, on the other hand, tend mostly to get attention from the people directly interested in optics as optics, not as a public relations move or attempt to gain a future employee. |
so thanks
Also, thanks to everyone else who's contributed to the thread.
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