Arcana-talk time [A day or two into the new liminal]

[professorwolf]

We're still assuming that the liminal space before a Jaunt represents the Arcana competing in it, yes? I know someone's mentioned this earlier, but it definitely needs to be highlighted-- I think it's pretty obvious this time that the contest will be between Chariot and Tower. The giant wooden horse running through a thunderstorm really couldn't be more blatant. For once.

[He's not great at understanding symbolism, but damn if this wasn't an easy one.]

So if that's right, it'll be a contest of motion and persistence, versus dramatic change and catastrophe. I think it's easy enough to decide who we want to support, in this case. We'll just have to find ways to make sure we see what sort of conditions make for a win for each ideal.

Any ideas for what to look for and how to keep things from devolving into a catastrophe? Those seem to happen a lot when we're around, unfortunately.

Comments

[memoryandtheft]

If it's 'can't' and not 'won't', there's more likely to be a pattern. And that isn't just in relation to us.

[fridgeninja]

Then we should look at what they did after Harrogate and Misericordia.

[memoryandtheft]

Pretty sure I missed both of those. What's the story there?

[fridgeninja]

They're the worlds where something that wasn't the Arcana invaded Liminal Space.

I suppose we can add Junkworld and maybe the Spark to that - something went wrong about Liminal Space when we were in space, and the people of the Spark hacked the psychic network.

[memoryandtheft]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that those "invaders" weren't exactly friendly to us squishy Travelers.

[fridgeninja]

The Illuminants are like the Arcana - they consider themselves before they think about the good of human beings.

The other Invader mutilates flesh, violates the dead, and drives people insane.

In either case, it's safe to say the Arcana did everything they could to stop them.

[memoryandtheft]

So they don't like competition. That's good to know.

Kind of makes me wonder if that's why we wound up on the last world.

[fridgeninja]

There are a few worlds that might be explained that way.

[memoryandtheft]

The last one, possibly the next one if the speculation about Greek myths is anywhere close to on target, the two you've mentioned already - which other worlds?

[fridgeninja]

Let me think about it.

Back on the Spark, the locals took over the psychic network. We've had two Jaunts in the universe with the Starmovers, who seem to have some kinds of power the Arcana don't. Questing Country is a different look at that same universe, I think, and it's one giant Liminal Space. In Purgatory, Travelers were supposed to retrieve the Divine Name, but we didn't manage it. When we were in the Bando peninsula, the Arcana seemed like rivals to the dragon-spirits there. When we were in Newport, the Manticore might have been a rival, too...

... That's eleven of sixteen Jaunts I remember, counting revisits separately. Every world we've been to twice, with one exception, and only one world we've only been to once.

[memoryandtheft]

Could be a coincidence, but if it is, that's a lot of coincidence.

[fridgeninja]

I hadn't put all of it together like that before. If every powerful group is someone they're trying to undermine...

Hm. It means that, the way we learn things as we travel, we might pick up enough to stand up to them.