the fellowship of the thing The Fellowship of the Thing - I'm bored. Let's mess around! (Retired)

[Channelknight Fadran]

"We do. The fact that we have as much as we have is the product of years. The fact remains is that the Clan is incredibly thorough with everything."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

"It is completely unthinkable that an Empire of that magnitude could or would have prevented you from obtaining any information about itself. That would be not only impractical, but also impossible. Not only would it be of limited utility to conceal the magnitude of one's forces- fear is a useful tool, after all - it would also be vulnerable to even a single slip of information. I mean, you could just walk up and look at what their forces are, surely?"

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

“If said reconnaissance involves maybe stealing some food, I like this plan.” Saph said, staring sadly at his empty bowl of spaghetti.

[Channelknight Fadran]

5 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

"It is completely unthinkable that an Empire of that magnitude could or would have prevented you from obtaining any information about itself. That would be not only impractical, but also impossible. Not only would it be of limited utility to conceal the magnitude of one's forces- fear is a useful tool, after all - it would also be vulnerable to even a single slip of information. I mean, you could just walk up and look at what their forces are, surely?"

"The Clan is not conventional by any means. They understand better than anyone that putting all of anything in one place is the easiest way to get it all ruined. Armies are spread thin throughout the universes, which in a pinch means that resistances like ours have a chance, but even if we completely succeed on one planet, we've barely made a dent in anything at all. Not to mention that important information, resources, and the like are all locked behind their own doors, both metaphorically and literally. Full-scale incursions are almost always required just to acquire a fraction of something larger."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

1 minute ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

"The Clan is not conventional by any means. They understand better than anyone that putting all of anything in one place is the easiest way to get it all ruined. Armies are spread thin throughout the universes, which in a pinch means that resistances like ours have a chance, but even if we completely succeed on one planet, we've barely made a dent in anything at all. Not to mention that important information, resources, and the like are all locked behind their own doors, both metaphorically and literally. Full-scale incursions are almost always required just to acquire a fraction of something larger."

"Information cannot be contained," stated Three simply. "It simply... cannot. It is against its nature."

"Yeah!" said Four.

[Channelknight Fadran]

"Nothing's perfect. Again, we do have some of it. There's no such thing as foolproof, no matter how many redundancies you have. It's just..." Fadran sucked in a breath. "It's just that the Clan has a lot of redundancies. For everything. Fallback plans upon fallback plans, secrets upon secrets... there's a reason they managed to amass literal millions of universes."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

"The amount of information of information you lack is beyond imperfect- it is baffling. How do you not know the nature of the forces that exist right next to you? Can't you watch them in action?"

[Channelknight Fadran]

"It's easier than you might think to simply hide everything behind an edited newspaper or a trail of bribes. People know that the Clan wages wars, conquers worlds, punishes innocents; but how, when, where, and why is all kept hidden. The vast majority of the 'citizens' within the empire are trapped in a small portion of a planet for the entirety of their lives. Travelers are monitored, upper-class people are given stakes in it all, and in the case that someone becomes truly dangerous, they're simply executed."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Just now, Channelknight Fadran said:

"It's easier than you might think to simply hide everything behind an edited newspaper or a trail of bribes. People know that the Clan wages wars, conquers worlds, punishes innocents; but how, when, where, and why is all kept hidden. The vast majority of the 'citizens' within the empire are trapped in a small portion of a planet for the entirety of their lives. Travelers are monitored, upper-class people are given stakes in it all, and in the case that someone becomes truly dangerous, they're simply executed."

"You can't hide something behind an edited newspaper!" piped up Echo Four. "It's a physical copy, so you can just find the old edition!"

"Compared to the infinity of Universes, the Clan is nothing," pointed out Echo Three. "There must exist information about the Empire outside of the Empire that the Empire is not able to control. And given that the majority of what is now the Empire was once not the Empire, that information should contain several pertinent details."

13 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

How do you not know the nature of the forces that exist right next to you? Can't you watch them in action?

Quote

I feel this question remains pertinent.

 

[Channelknight Fadran]

"There's no such thing as an original copy of a newspaper. There aren't any independent news sources, except those who remain in a Clan-controlled bubble of Clan-controlled news. As for what other universes know, the answer is very little. Macrocosmic travel is extremely limited in most situations. In fact, pretty much every universe within the Clan's control isn't anywhere near developing such abilities--several are physically incapable of doing so--which means that while there's undoubtedly several universes who have information that we don't, going out and finding them, talking to them, getting them to join our side... all that's going to be ridiculously unfeasible."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

"You... you can't even travel between universes?"

[Channelknight Fadran]

"I can. A lot of people can. It's just very far from everyone."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

"My assessment of the situation is that you have approximately a zero percent chance of taking down the Empire with the information you now have. Know your enemy is one of the first rules of war, after all."

[Channelknight Fadran]

"I absolutely agree. And that is why we are starting off small."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

"I thought you said you had been doing this for years?"

[Channelknight Fadran]

"Not me personally. The locals who've managed to sneak by security and build this base." Fadran gestured at the caverns.

[xinoehp512 he/him]

3 minutes ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

"I absolutely agree. And that is why we are starting off small."

"I thought the plan was to attack the world that their entire empire depends on. That's hardly small."

[Channelknight Fadran]

"There isn't any singular world that they depend on. Again, redundancies." Fadran thumbed behind him. "We're starting by cutting off some control here in the colonies. Cause general chaos and whatnot. From there we can work our way a bit deeper into the heart of the Clan and start dealing some real damage, but for now, simply giving the people here some hope and a fighting chance just for themselves is enough."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

"Well, you can't do anything without information. Not effectively."

[Channelknight Fadran]

"Here we have at least a rough idea of their forces and where stuff is. They've established a presence, which means we have targets to attack."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Just now, Channelknight Fadran said:

"Here we have at least a rough idea of their forces and where stuff is. They've established a presence, which means we have targets to attack."

"The world is here? Also, you said that you didn't know the nature of the forces here."

 

[Channelknight Fadran]

"Not here. This is important to an extent, but not essential." Fadran seemed to be getting a bit more miffed. "We don't. Not for a surety. But guesswork has taken us farther than you might think."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

"Well, stop underselling yourself then," declared Three. "What is the nature of the forces here, to the best of your knowledge?"

[Channelknight Fadran]

"Mostly recruited soldiers. Local scabs, conscripted criminals, bullies... that sort of thing. With enough provocation they'd call in an actual military to do the job, but most strut their own power around enough to have become somewhat desensitized to insurrection; hence why this resistance is still up and running."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

"What magic systems do they have access to?"