test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Pop Quiz, Hotshot.

highlord83highlord83 Member Posts: 229 Arc User
I like to think that all my characters are interconnected somehow. That every persons account is their own branch of a timeline or what have you. Thinking on that as I played through The Romulan Mystery again today is what inspired me to make this post. You see, I made my first character Federation, and I still play her. My Romulan came second, so in my mind/headcanon, her story takes place afterwards.

So. Put yourself in the head and shoes of your Romulan captain, whatever mix of details you desire. You've been through several shades of hell thus far. Home destroyed, betrayed by friends, seen others die. It's been an unpleasant past few months. You look forward to finally putting Hakkev in a hole and are honing your crew into an extension of yourself, as any good fleet officer should. You've made an alliance with [Fed/KDF] and it's fruitful. Then you're sent on a mission into the "southern" portion of what once was the Empire.

There, you discover that Admiral T'nae (an infamous name to any Republic officer) apparently has a new attack dog, and said dog has been unleashed on the Imperial and Tal'Shiar remnants. In addition, this Federation Captain apparently thinks things like "sovereign Romulan territory" is some sort of hilarious myth. You first learn of this when you start finding drifting wreckage of T'Varos, Mogais and D'Dreidexes along now empty old patrol routes. Eventually, you manage to follow leads and the trail of destruction to Nimbus 3, where you not only find signs that all sorts of hell had broken loose in orbit, but Tovan's sister, whereupon she points you to a now very screwed Tal'Shiar base on the surface. Also, lots of dead gorn and orions, at least one massacred underworld bar, and the town of Paradise apparently under martial law, courtesy of the Federation.

Upon arrival at the base, you find flaming, rihan-corpse choked ruins and so much photon radiation and dimming phaser signatures that your tricorder is telling you that there had to be a company level front-line infantry action here several hours ago. You spend a couple days investigating and wondering just what the hell is happening in the galaxy when you get an urgent message from Republic Command to haul TRIBBLE in the most scalded-epohh manner to Brea III.

You follow the swathe of destruction to Brea III, and upon arrival, you find Imperial, Tal'Siar and Reman vessels locked in bitter combat, a Federation cruiser shooting everything not it or reman that gets close while at the same time bombarding the city from orbit. A city that, according to sensors, is being assaulted even as it's being hit with capital ship weapons by a Federation strike force. A force that, according to you comm officer, has blasted Hakeev to ash, slaughtered most of the Tal'Shiar in the area, is planting a very inordinate amount of explosives, and is firing on Empress Sela.

And the last time you checked, the Feds were nice people and there hadn't been a declaration of war. Yet.

So. Pop quiz, Republic. What do you do?
(Essentially, your Romulan character's story takes place a little offset from the Feds, and you cross paths at the end of "The Romulan Mystery.")

EDITS: Grammar.
"So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again."
-Dedication plaque of the Federation Starship U.S.S. Merkava

Comments

  • takfeltakfel Member Posts: 238 Arc User
    Never drop below 50 mph.
  • daveynydaveyny Member Posts: 8,227 Arc User
    Hello,
    Strange game, the only winning move is not to play.

    Would you like to play a different game?

    How about a nice game of chess?

    wargames.jpg

    STO Member since February 2009.
    I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
    Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
    upside-down-banana-smiley-emoticon.gif
  • tylermaxwelltylermaxwell Member Posts: 184 Arc User
    highlord83 wrote: »
    I like to think that all my characters are interconnected somehow. That every persons account is their own branch of a timeline or what have you. Thinking on that as I played through The Romulan Mystery again today is what inspired me to make this post. You see, I made my first character Federation, and I still play her. My Romulan came second, so in my mind/headcanon, her story takes place afterwards.

    So. Put yourself in the head and shoes of your Romulan captain, whatever mix of details you desire. You've been through several shades of hell thus far. Home destroyed, betrayed by friends, seen others die. It's been an unpleasant past few months. You look forward to finally putting Hakkev in a hole and are honing your crew into an extension of yourself, as any good fleet officer should. You've made an alliance with [Fed/KDF] and it's fruitful. Then you're sent on a mission into the "southern" portion of what once was the Empire.

    There, you discover that Admiral T'nae (an infamous name to any Republic officer) apparently has a new attack dog, and said dog has been unleashed on the Imperial and Tal'Shiar remnants. In addition, this Federation Captain apparently thinks things like "sovereign Romulan territory" is some sort of hilarious myth. You first learn of this when you start finding drifting wreckage of T'Varos, Mogais and D'Dreidexes along now empty old patrol routes. Eventually, you manage to follow leads and the trail of destruction to Nimbus 3, where you not only find signs that all sorts of hell had broken loose in orbit, but Tovan's sister, whereupon she points you to a now very screwed Tal'Shiar base on the surface. Also, lots of dead gorn and orions, at least one massacred underworld bar, and the town of Paradise apparently under martial law, courtesy of the Federation.

    Upon arrival at the base, you find flaming, rihan-corpse choked ruins and so much photon radiation and dimming phaser signatures that your tricorder is telling you that there had to be a company level front-line infantry action here several hours ago. You spend a couple days investigating and wondering just what the hell is happening in the galaxy when you get an urgent message from Republic Command to haul TRIBBLE in the most scalded-epohh manner to Brea III.

    You follow the swathe of destruction to Brea III, and upon arrival, you find Imperial, Tal'Siar and Reman vessels locked in bitter combat, a Federation cruiser shooting everything not it or reman that gets close while at the same time bombarding the city from orbit. A city that, according to sensors, is being assaulted even as it's being hit with capital ship weapons by a Federation strike force. A force that, according to you comm officer, has blasted Hakeev to ash, slaughtered most of the Tal'Shiar in the area, is planting a very inordinate amount of explosives, and is firing on Empress Sela.

    And the last time you checked, the Feds were nice people and there hadn't been a declaration of war. Yet.

    So. Pop quiz, Republic. What do you do?
    (Essentially, your Romulan character's story takes place a little offset from the Feds, and you cross paths at the end of "The Romulan Mystery.")

    EDITS: Grammar.

    All hail your new Federation overlords!!!

    (Really, ALL the species will be joining the mighty FEDs eventually. It has been fortold. Resistance is futile. o:) )

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • seriousdaveseriousdave Member Posts: 2,777 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    highlord83 wrote: »
    I like to think that all my characters are interconnected somehow. That every persons account is their own branch of a timeline or what have you. Thinking on that as I played through The Romulan Mystery again today is what inspired me to make this post. You see, I made my first character Federation, and I still play her. My Romulan came second, so in my mind/headcanon, her story takes place afterwards.

    So. Put yourself in the head and shoes of your Romulan captain, whatever mix of details you desire. You've been through several shades of hell thus far. Home destroyed, betrayed by friends, seen others die. It's been an unpleasant past few months. You look forward to finally putting Hakkev in a hole and are honing your crew into an extension of yourself, as any good fleet officer should. You've made an alliance with [Fed/KDF] and it's fruitful. Then you're sent on a mission into the "southern" portion of what once was the Empire.

    There, you discover that Admiral T'nae (an infamous name to any Republic officer) apparently has a new attack dog, and said dog has been unleashed on the Imperial and Tal'Shiar remnants. In addition, this Federation Captain apparently thinks things like "sovereign Romulan territory" is some sort of hilarious myth. You first learn of this when you start finding drifting wreckage of T'Varos, Mogais and D'Dreidexes along now empty old patrol routes. Eventually, you manage to follow leads and the trail of destruction to Nimbus 3, where you not only find signs that all sorts of hell had broken loose in orbit, but Tovan's sister, whereupon she points you to a now very screwed Tal'Shiar base on the surface. Also, lots of dead gorn and orions, at least one massacred underworld bar, and the town of Paradise apparently under martial law, courtesy of the Federation.

    Upon arrival at the base, you find flaming, rihan-corpse choked ruins and so much photon radiation and dimming phaser signatures that your tricorder is telling you that there had to be a company level front-line infantry action here several hours ago. You spend a couple days investigating and wondering just what the hell is happening in the galaxy when you get an urgent message from Republic Command to haul TRIBBLE in the most scalded-epohh manner to Brea III.

    You follow the swathe of destruction to Brea III, and upon arrival, you find Imperial, Tal'Siar and Reman vessels locked in bitter combat, a Federation cruiser shooting everything not it or reman that gets close while at the same time bombarding the city from orbit. A city that, according to sensors, is being assaulted even as it's being hit with capital ship weapons by a Federation strike force. A force that, according to you comm officer, has blasted Hakeev to ash, slaughtered most of the Tal'Shiar in the area, is planting a very inordinate amount of explosives, and is firing on Empress Sela.

    And the last time you checked, the Feds were nice people and there hadn't been a declaration of war. Yet.

    So. Pop quiz, Republic. What do you do?
    (Essentially, your Romulan character's story takes place a little offset from the Feds, and you cross paths at the end of "The Romulan Mystery.")

    EDITS: Grammar.

    All hail your new Federation overlords!!!

    (Really, ALL the species will be joining the mighty FEDs eventually. It has been fortold. Resistance is futile. o:) )

    Don't cram them together with the poor borg, they were at least upfront about it. :D
  • theraven2378theraven2378 Member Posts: 6,015 Arc User
    Go with the old Earth saying of the enemy of my enemy is also my friend and side with the Federation in ending the Tal Shiar
    NMXb2ph.png
      "The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
      -Lord Commander Solar Macharius
    • berginsbergins Member Posts: 3,453 Arc User
      So, what you are asking, OP, is how do you reconcile the actions you took as a Fed vs the actions you take as a Rom if both characters' storylines take place in the same timeline?

      You can't.

      If they did, certain missions would never happen because your other toon already resolved the issue that made the mission necessary. Rather than your head canon, I hold that my alts all are experiencing a slightly different version of reality. Each one has enough similarities that the overall timeline is almost melding back together in these latest story arcs. Otherwise, how is it that each of your characters has to go back in time to thwart the Iconians and each discovers that they are, in fact, The Other?

      Pop quiz, OP: How do you head canon that?
      "Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell BAD." - Spock
    • stobg2015stobg2015 Member Posts: 800 Arc User
      bergins wrote: »
      So, what you are asking, OP, is how do you reconcile the actions you took as a Fed vs the actions you take as a Rom if both characters' storylines take place in the same timeline?

      You can't.

      If they did, certain missions would never happen because your other toon already resolved the issue that made the mission necessary. Rather than your head canon, I hold that my alts all are experiencing a slightly different version of reality. Each one has enough similarities that the overall timeline is almost melding back together in these latest story arcs. Otherwise, how is it that each of your characters has to go back in time to thwart the Iconians and each discovers that they are, in fact, The Other?

      This.

      Every single character is necessarily in their own unique timeline because everything you do is ascribed to that specific character. At no point are you ever told that you don't need to complete a mission because X got to it first. Only very rarely (if ever) are faction-specific missions referenced in another faction's mission. You may assume someone unmasked the Undine at P'Jem, destroyed the Planet Killer, and took down B'vat, but it doesn't necessarily mean that your Fed character did that in your Romulan character's timeline any more than it means your Fed character is the one that found out what happened at your Romulan character's Hobus. Which wouldn't make sense because in the Romulan timeline it's the Romulan that does that.

      There's no other good way to think about it, except not to think about it. There are a few shared areas in the form of adventure/battle zones where this isn't a problem, but all of the story-based missions are instanced with you in the leading role.
      (The Guy Formerly And Still Known As Bluegeek)
    • daiphdaiph Member Posts: 149 Arc User
      All hail your new Federation overlords!!!

      (Really, ALL the species will be joining the mighty FEDs eventually. It has been fortold. Resistance is futile. o:) )

      Don't cram them together with the poor borg, they were at least upfront about it. :D

      'It's vile', 'It's so bubbly and cloy and happy', 'it's insidious'... Just like the Federation
      What everyone buying Zen are really saying while all these bugs are still floating freely:
      qHiCsi6.gif
      Stop new content until quality returns
    • This content has been removed.
    • feiqafeiqa Member Posts: 2,410 Arc User
      daiph wrote: »
      All hail your new Federation overlords!!!

      (Really, ALL the species will be joining the mighty FEDs eventually. It has been fortold. Resistance is futile. o:) )

      Don't cram them together with the poor borg, they were at least upfront about it. :D

      'It's vile', 'It's so bubbly and cloy and happy', 'it's insidious'... Just like the Federation

      Hey! No bringing down rootbeer either! :)

      As to the OP. My head Canon is the events on Virinat happened before my Fed character graduated. The Romulan specific missions were done by my romulan captain and the Fed ones by my Fed. Nimbus is more focused for the Romulans so it belongs to their story. But the devidian arc belongs to the Feds and is being done while you are meeting contacts to see about Charva and getting recruited by an intelligence officer. If you have a KDF character spin the wheel even references that person's actions being done with the great houses. So all three character arcs are happening. You just have to head canon who is dealing with whom. (Personally I think Romulans took taking down Hakeev from the feds as it is way more personal for them.)

      Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
      Network engineers are not ship designers.
      Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
    • tylermaxwelltylermaxwell Member Posts: 184 Arc User
      stobg2015 wrote: »
      bergins wrote: »
      So, what you are asking, OP, is how do you reconcile the actions you took as a Fed vs the actions you take as a Rom if both characters' storylines take place in the same timeline?

      You can't.

      If they did, certain missions would never happen because your other toon already resolved the issue that made the mission necessary. Rather than your head canon, I hold that my alts all are experiencing a slightly different version of reality. Each one has enough similarities that the overall timeline is almost melding back together in these latest story arcs. Otherwise, how is it that each of your characters has to go back in time to thwart the Iconians and each discovers that they are, in fact, The Other?

      This.

      Every single character is necessarily in their own unique timeline because everything you do is ascribed to that specific character. At no point are you ever told that you don't need to complete a mission because X got to it first. Only very rarely (if ever) are faction-specific missions referenced in another faction's mission. You may assume someone unmasked the Undine at P'Jem, destroyed the Planet Killer, and took down B'vat, but it doesn't necessarily mean that your Fed character did that in your Romulan character's timeline any more than it means your Fed character is the one that found out what happened at your Romulan character's Hobus. Which wouldn't make sense because in the Romulan timeline it's the Romulan that does that.

      There's no other good way to think about it, except not to think about it. There are a few shared areas in the form of adventure/battle zones where this isn't a problem, but all of the story-based missions are instanced with you in the leading role.

      Alternatively, if you really want to keep all of your chars in the same universe/timeline as each other, then you could selectively choose which of your characters is the one true hero that does a certain mission/story arc, e.g. your FED char does all the stories taking place in Federation space, while your ROM char does the ones near Romulan space, with the other storylines distributed at your discretion.

      That's basically what I do with my mains: most of the faction-agnostic story arcs go to my FED captain (my first & most-loved Marty Sue of a char :)<3 ), from the tutorial through where we are presently in the Temporal arc, while my Klink captain does the ones that are exclusive to the KDF faction, and the same with my Romulan captain and the ROM missions. The one exception is the Nimbus arc, which I actually see happening to my Romulan guy, since I think the whole Hakeev plot and finding Rinna fit much better with the Romulan story than the FED/KDF ones (plus, Tovan finally stops whining about his sister! :D ). I had thought of switching the Reman arc from my FED guy, who's had that arc as part of his history since it was first released, to my Romulan one due the story tweaks in LoR that basically retrofit it as the tail-end of the Romulan player storyline, but my FED guy has had that story for so long and I loath removing story elements from my chars like that (Damn You Retcons! :rage: ).
      [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Sign In or Register to comment.