Archived GM Notes: This page is unsealed GM-notes pertaining to PRPG2. It is not canonical to PRPG2. It may contain contradictions (even with itself), and preliminary ideas that were merely written down as I thought of them, for later consideration. The absence of something mentioned here from the canon does not necessarily mean that the party "missed" it, it could have been mooted for other reasons or simply discarded by me.
UNSEALED after review.
1. Nova will be generally cooperative.
2. Nova desires to assess the party's trustworthiness as part of a future working relationship, which she envisions as her being "princess" in the classical sense and the party being the EoH. But this is her long term plan. She doesn't want to be princess forever - she is hoping for someone else to come along.
Nova's vision:
- No. I don't want take over the world. I certainly don't want to conquer it. But neither would I see Equus riven by war between squabbling factions, or ruled by brutal overlords who exploit the less powerful. I would prefer this to be achieved through peaceful means, and in that respect I believe the Elements of Harmony can do much. But at the end of the day, I understand that this will not always be possible, and that we must be willing and able to resort to force.
Being princess:
- We must have a strong leader. That leader doesn't have to be me, and in some ways I'd really rather it wasn't. But I've come to terms with the situation into which I've been placed. An alicorn princess revives the hopes of the common pony and recalls the old legends of the Golden Age. I believe that as time goes on and the conditions of the Golden Age are restored, there will be less and less of a need for a monarch in the practical sense, and the powers of the princess can be devolved on individuals selected democratically.
(None of this is really a lie, but she believes that there will always be problems that (she thinks) it is best to have an alicorn princess in charge to deal with)
Remember to ask Emerald about her Element.
On relationship with the Elements:
- In the short term, with Risen Bones out of the way and the Elements gathered and purified, I think that the bearers of the Elements - including you, assuming that our expectations need to address the problem of the expansion crystal forest. Unfortunately, even after extensive discussions with the precatastrophic synthetic intelligences, we know relatively little of what "using" the Elements entails. There are... serious concerns. The Elements have a will of their own, but lack either the ability or inclination to communicate directly with ponies, even their bearers, about their intentions. For all the work of theologians, we cannot even be sure of exactly how they define the personal qualities that are foundational to Equine morality. For example, the Elements apparently tolerated centuries of changeling domination during the Golden Age. Who is to say that a naive attempt to apply the Elements to the crystal forest will not release untold millions of entrapped changelings to control us like livestock once again? And of course, we do not know how localized the effect will be if you just walk up to the crystal forest and do whatever comes naturally to you with the Elements. Will it set off a world-wide reaction of some sort, or will you spend the next twenty years of your life traveling to the far reaches of Equus purging the crystal forest?
Don't get me wrong - I fully believe that the Elements could restore the ecological balance of our world - to fill our oceans and drive back the Everfree, and restore the vast deserts - but I am gravely concerned about the possible effects of applying them to the crystal forest in particular.
Do you know why we expended so much effort getting aboard the _Harmony_? That ship was made as an engine of creation, of rebirth - an instrument to remake a marginally inhabitable world suitable for our kind. Just as that it would have been enough to justify spending ten times more than we did, or a hundred... but... when I went aboard, do you know what I found?
I found a ship built around an enormous crystal ball. It’s utterly dominated by its scrying mechanism. I’ve studied old books and plans - even in the age of the aetherial impeller, spacecraft were generally dominated by their drive mechanisms. But this, this ship is dominated by a huge crystal ball, orders of magnitude larger and more perfect than the best ever made on Equus, and that with magical amplifiers of unmatched power. They told the public that it was for scouting out distant worlds before approaching -- but this vastly too far on the wrong side of the break-even point for a greater investment in propulsion instead. No, it is not a sensor array - it is the definitive instrument by which one may effect one’s will on reality through retrodivination.
Retrodivination is the ultimate power the civilization of the Golden Age once forswore, as being too dangerously uncontrollable, beyond the capabilities of any pony. But harnessed here, in the Harmony, as a completely new paradigm in transportation -- put simply, the scryer foresees the safe arrival of the ship at the destination at some definite time in the future, and there it is! The universe bends and perforates itself as needed in service to that irrevocable Destiny. But because of the generality of this drive mechanism, our kind has arrived in a position far superior to its appearances.
What, do you suppose, is the greatest threat to Equus, to the continuation of our species?
Yes, the ecological devastation does represent an existential threat to us.
What are her plans?
Put simply, we want to put our world right. To make it lush and green again, abundant and pleasant as it... [tears up] once was. And there is more to be done than renewing the ecological devastation the Catastrophe. We would restore a global, harmonious and free social organization - through peaceful means as far as possible, but I have no illusions about what it may take in some cases. I do not believe that this restoration of our world can be complete without the Elements. In the spaceship Harmony - built as a tool for remaking a marginally habitable world for use by our kind - we believe we have a means to initiate the ecological renewal of Equus. At one time, we thought that the Harmony, equipped with weapons vastly beyond the capabilities of any power today, would also be instrumental in bringing peace to the world. But I've come to realize that it making force the first resort would doom our effort from the start. No state can reign by fear forever, and no state that rules by fear could possibly be in keeping with the spirit of Harmony. And I think that's where the Elements will really come in - not so much zapping problems with Rainbows, but as a symbol for the harmonious peoples of the world to rally around. It is a long, difficult path, with many challenges, I'm sure. But it will bring about a stable, lasting peace - a new Golden Age. Without the Elements, I fear we would have to settle for something less. We could bring about a cessation of violence, perhaps, but is it true peace if the opponents lay down their arms only out of fear of utter destruction? I have come to the conclusion that it isn't. There will be no new Golden Age without the Elements - or rather without their Bearers, acting autonomously to win the hearts and minds of the diverse peoples of this world for Harmony.
But there is another view -- a view that considers both the Elements themselves and their bearers, not chosen by us, to be an erratic rival wielding a poorly understood and incredibly potent power, a potential threat to our program of renewal and our plans for a global system of governance. That view is held by some of the most senior figures in our organization, intensely loyal to Risen Bones. But with your help, I think we can win them over.
I can understand if some of the circumstances would lead you to have trouble trusting me. I've been playing my cards close to my chest in all of these things, I know. Some of it I can say has been the... advice I've been getting, some of it's force of habit, but most of it, I admit, has been me not being as trusting as I might have been. I mean, I... I think we can both admit that not everything that's happened in the course of obtaining the Elements has gone as well as we hoped. There have been more than a few missteps...
But let me take a step here and trust you with some of my own plans. I'm sure you're aware of the oppression in the Northern Dusts? I'm sad to say but Risen Bones himself played a role in the establishment of the current system of wizard-overlords there, not that the roving bands of bandits they replaced were really better. I suppose worse, given that they weren't much for building or long-term investment. But we - the senior figures of the Organization are united at least on this point - feel that the time has come for the people of the North to be united under a democratic state with respect for the rule of law. This will also serve as a way for all concerned to gain experience with this state-building thing, and serve as a... salubrious example of what we can do to powers who may be reluctant to be cooperative.
Mind you, some diplomacy has been tried, and not entirely without success. One of the wizard-lords secretly agreed with our agents to cooperate, and to reform her territory as a constitutional monarchy. The others are intransigent, and I'm afraid they never can be persuaded to give up their power peacefully.
(This is numinous spirit, the earth pony; leaving out the details that it's not only her territory, she has two co-rulers..).
Risen Bones:
I've been dreading this question, but I suppose I need to give some explanation of that to you. Risen... he was a good stallion, once, centuries ago. He was a physician in what's called Witch Point nowadays, though back then it had another name. A strong mage and an able healer, but not strong enough to save all of his patients, he turned with the best of intentions to the conquest of mortality, as so many have before. He had little success. One night, the spirit of an ancient mage, calling itself "Dusty Tomes," touched his dreams with promises of immortal power. In his frustration, he embraced a pact with the spirit to obtain the secrets of necromancy, and they worked together to continue a great project for the salvation of Equus. But... unfortunately, though some of the goals of the spirit were good goals, that spirit was completely without morality or regard for the rights of others or value of their lives. Its thinking had a corrosive influence on Risen, and the good pony that he was - that was dissolved away like the flesh from his bones when he embraced lichdom. They were still working for good goals, but through whatever means seemed most expedient. Don't misunderstand - I too feel that good ends _can_ justify otherwise unacceptable means - but only in the last resort. But Risen was using kidnapping to obtain slave labor, hastening our eugenics program by very questionable means... I do not really care to list these things, and couldn't really if I tried.
I've tried to reform things, but there is quite a bit of inertia. And it's not as if Risen did these things gratuitously; he did them to advance specific positive goals and plans. Seeking alternatives without throwing away centuries of work - without making all the sacrifices, voluntary or not, over those long years worthless - takes time, and it's been frustratingly slow. And of course there has been resistance... old habits, you know? And who wants to listen to a child, wings and horn or not? There is only so much I can do...
Dusty Tomes: I would rather not talk about Dusty, but I suppose I owe you that much. The spectre calling itself "Dusty Tomes" was the name used by the spirit of an ancient mage. The Organization's plans were set in motion by that spirit centuries ago - before Risen Bones was born, not long after the oceans ceased to fall. There were two principle goals: to restore the environment of the planet to pre-Catastrophic conditions, and to install a new alicorn princess on the throne of a united Equus. The particular means have varied over the long years... an early attempt to use precatastrophic genetics technology to create an alicorn failed essentially due to the unavailability of genetic material or information about alicorn biology... the Harmony in orbit above us wasn't discovered to be a potential ecological engineering tool until about fifty years ago, as I understand it. And there was also another goal - to prevent the misuse of magic, and of divination in particular. Our organization spends quite a bit of effort excavating old ruins and obtaining magical artefacts, and securing that class of object from misuse is very important to us accordingly. But where was I? Dusty... so, yes, Dusty had goals I think were probably mostly good. But Dusty had no conscience or empathy. And so its methods were brutal, and its actions affected by additional... less noble goals, of what extent others can only wonder.
Its thinking had a corrosive influence on Risen, and the good pony that he was once - that was dissolved away like the flesh from his bones when he embraced lichdom. They were still working predominately for good goals, but through whatever means seemed most expedient.
Dusty Tomes has grown to control Risen Bones completely. ?????/
Millennial Dawn: Not supposed to kill that cleric.