Post by contributor on Feb 18, 2013 15:40:10 GMT -5
If you ask me, every time you roll out of your sleep pod, look in the mirror and don't see a De Valtos scancode stamped into your forehead you ought to thank the Maker for Syndicate Rychart. The technology is already there to make it happen. It's a fine plan to simplify commerce, ensure identity and eliminate illegal trading, all closely monitored by DV's data centers. Centers, no doubt, "operated in good faith for the benefit and progress of every faction in the quadrant." The only question is how far you trust benevolent old Kashmire De Valtos. But ask yourself what would you do if you could see every trade made by every trader in real-time? Nobody should have that kind of power. The truth is there is only one faction keeping one step ahead of De Valtos' plans for total market (read quadrant) domination.
I can tell you, it certainly isn't the House of Thulun you should be looking to to keep things in check. Sitting smugly atop the clans, their leaders are slipping off ever more frequently to their "cottages" in the Undrai Valley, sipping hot toddies against the cooling of the Universe. No a few cases of DV gin (yes it's out there) is all it takes keep the Lion of Thulun sleeping peacefully.
And don't look to the other Houses for succor. It certainly isn't Steel Song who will come to the quadrant's aid. So certain of their ability to be great and yet so unrecognized by the other factions, they're content to flex their muscles through random acts of violence. No the battle would be long over before they realized the true danger they were in. And what of Javat? Don't hope that whole faction of hobbits and dwarves will stop their digging and making of trinkets long enough to sniff the wind. Indeed the idea of an integrated commercial matrix promises to relieve them of the burden of finding markets for all their wonderful creations. "Why not leave the marketing and sale of goods to the experts?" they say.
Many believe it is Cadar who could keep the quadrant in balance, but the truth is that their bid to usurp De Valtos through the UTF failed long ago. Nowadays they're content, like a bunch of frat-boys, to slap each other on the back and talk incessantly about their torpedos. No, there is nothing profound or calculated in their harassment of weaker factions.
It is only Rychart which has consistently and determinedly sought to keep the ambitions of their syndicate brothers in check and for this they receive little more than the scorn and derision of captains whose very freedom is contingent on their work behind the scenes. For unflinchingly making the decisions which must be made, they are branded as brutal and capricious. For keeping alive the tradition of fine goods made by hand, rather than in the great sealed factories, manned by men and women who are little more than slaves, they are seen as somehow absurd. For keeping a path open through the center of the quadrant for all legal traders they are said to be miserly and over-reaching. And for gathering the information necessary and working to keep the ebb and flow of conflict in the quadrant in equilibrium they are called fickle and calculating.
But let us all, free captains of the quadrant, take a moment, each time we see the nearest star crest the edge of the planet we are orbiting, to thank the Maker. Thank him that it is not us who are called to look too deeply into the shadows swirling about us. Let us be thankful that we can take the wad of credits pressed in to our palms by Kashmire's sausage-like fingers and look into his shining face when he says "De Valtos has uses for a fine captain such as yourself" without asking ourselves what he might actually be thinking of. Let us be thankful that as long as Rychart exists we can live in the light, because they are masters of the dark.
I can tell you, it certainly isn't the House of Thulun you should be looking to to keep things in check. Sitting smugly atop the clans, their leaders are slipping off ever more frequently to their "cottages" in the Undrai Valley, sipping hot toddies against the cooling of the Universe. No a few cases of DV gin (yes it's out there) is all it takes keep the Lion of Thulun sleeping peacefully.
And don't look to the other Houses for succor. It certainly isn't Steel Song who will come to the quadrant's aid. So certain of their ability to be great and yet so unrecognized by the other factions, they're content to flex their muscles through random acts of violence. No the battle would be long over before they realized the true danger they were in. And what of Javat? Don't hope that whole faction of hobbits and dwarves will stop their digging and making of trinkets long enough to sniff the wind. Indeed the idea of an integrated commercial matrix promises to relieve them of the burden of finding markets for all their wonderful creations. "Why not leave the marketing and sale of goods to the experts?" they say.
Many believe it is Cadar who could keep the quadrant in balance, but the truth is that their bid to usurp De Valtos through the UTF failed long ago. Nowadays they're content, like a bunch of frat-boys, to slap each other on the back and talk incessantly about their torpedos. No, there is nothing profound or calculated in their harassment of weaker factions.
It is only Rychart which has consistently and determinedly sought to keep the ambitions of their syndicate brothers in check and for this they receive little more than the scorn and derision of captains whose very freedom is contingent on their work behind the scenes. For unflinchingly making the decisions which must be made, they are branded as brutal and capricious. For keeping alive the tradition of fine goods made by hand, rather than in the great sealed factories, manned by men and women who are little more than slaves, they are seen as somehow absurd. For keeping a path open through the center of the quadrant for all legal traders they are said to be miserly and over-reaching. And for gathering the information necessary and working to keep the ebb and flow of conflict in the quadrant in equilibrium they are called fickle and calculating.
But let us all, free captains of the quadrant, take a moment, each time we see the nearest star crest the edge of the planet we are orbiting, to thank the Maker. Thank him that it is not us who are called to look too deeply into the shadows swirling about us. Let us be thankful that we can take the wad of credits pressed in to our palms by Kashmire's sausage-like fingers and look into his shining face when he says "De Valtos has uses for a fine captain such as yourself" without asking ourselves what he might actually be thinking of. Let us be thankful that as long as Rychart exists we can live in the light, because they are masters of the dark.
