Book 2 – Text Updates 027

[yuffiek]

Which raises the question... How old *is* Erfworld? Not like we could possibly know, but it would bring up a lot more theories on the state of affairs in their world. There could be more than four Arkentools, yet they just haven't been discovered because the world is so new... Or perhaps their world is so old that other Arkentools have drifted from one dying empire to the next, until all knowledge of them died out. Yeah, lots of questions.

Went through the wiki to see if anything and we have a minimum age: 415 turns. Don was 15 turns old when he assumed the throne and has been ruling for at least 400 according to LIAB Text Update 005. So by our terms, a year and 50 days.

Duncan Scone's Laurel of Napster was made "thousands of turns ago". It's a safe bet that Erfworld's at least 5000 turns old.

[Inst]

Did anyone get all of the Z-name references?

Zeno, ancient Greek mathematician who proposed Zeno's paradox.

Zergling, basic unit of the Zerg faction in Starcraft. Famous for being cranked out at the expense of long-term economy in a "rush" tactic before your opponent is ready.

Zidane, French Footballer and FFIX character

Zoloft, American brand name for GlaxoSmithKline (iirc) anti-depressant

Zoidberg, lobster-like alien from Futurama. Famous for being inept at everything.

Zippo, brand of high-performance lighters.

IMO, I still take Wanda's story in the end of Book 1 at face value. Wanda wasn't planning to turn on Banhammer, but the force provided by Stanley was overwhelming. She is probably loyal to Stanley; if she constituted her own side, she could have bopped Stanley right at the end of Book 1 where a vast majority of GK forces were Wanda's.

[gazes_also]

Did anyone get all of the Z-name references?

Zeno, ancient Greek mathematician who proposed Zeno's paradox.

Zergling, basic unit of the Zerg faction in Starcraft. Famous for being cranked out at the expense of long-term economy in a "rush" tactic before your opponent is ready.

Zidane, French Footballer and FFIX character

Zoloft, American brand name for GlaxoSmithKline (iirc) anti-depressant

Zoidberg, lobster-like alien from Futurama. Famous for being inept at everything.

Zippo, brand of high-performance lighters.

Zeppo: the fourth Marx Brother

Zildjian: maker of cymbals, (possibly drum kits but I've only ever seen cymbals)

Zippy: the only Zippy I know of was puppet character in a 1970's pre-school children's show in the UK called "Rainbow", but I doubt that's the one.

[gazes_also]

Frankly, i believe in what Charlie has said about the titanic mandate... People are just seeing what they WANT to see
For instance, right now, Wanda believes that she will not croak; the titains are watching over her and she does not need to protect herself... but when it comes down to it the only thing that will save her from croaking is Parson's more level headed thinking

I agree. There is a very good reason for believing Charlie when he says there is no such thing as "The Will of the Titans".
He has 'unmatched thinkamancy' skills.
He has a Titanic artifact whose primary power is communication.
He can contact anyone anywhere on Erfworld with it.

If you had a god's cellphone - who do you think you would call?

How long would he have been attuned to the Archendish before he decided to try to contact the Titans themselves? I would guess the moment he woke up the day after he attuned. He points the dish heavenwards, focuses all his energy and puts out the call.

"I'm sorry, that number is no longer in service"

So it comes down to this: If Charlie can't get an answer or pick up Titanic messages using the Titans' own communication network, how could anyone else possibly be able to?

[JustDoug]

So it comes down to this: If Charlie can't get an answer or pick up Titanic messages using the Titans' own communication network, how could anyone else possibly be able to?

Unlisted number, perhaps? Caller ID service? Or perhaps they're sleeping in late, and have the phone off the hook?

Personally, if I was in Charley's shoes and did that, I'd be a lot more worried about getting an answer to that sort of cold calling- especially if the recipient likely has a 'SMITE' key alongside the pound and star keys.

[fjolnir]

zeno is also the puppet in Super Mario RPG for the snes... Zippy is also referential to Zippy the Pinhead as well, a long running comic strip by Bill Griffith.

[build6]

So it comes down to this: If Charlie can't get an answer or pick up Titanic messages using the Titans' own communication network, how could anyone else possibly be able to?

.... but what if Charlie DID get an answer and they told him to "collect lots of Archons"?

I think there may be a hint of a greater mystery in the throwaway line in one of the earlier updates about why it's unclear Charlie wants so many Archons (and he ONLY uses Archons, no?). Is he a mercenary because he's bored?

[multilis]

Frankly, i believe in what Charlie has said about the titanic mandate... People are just seeing what they WANT to see
For instance, right now, Wanda believes that she will not croak; the titains are watching over her and she does not need to protect herself... but when it comes down to it the only thing that will save her from croaking is Parson's more level headed thinking

I agree. There is a very good reason for believing Charlie when he says there is no such thing as "The Will of the Titans".
He has 'unmatched thinkamancy' skills.
He has a Titanic artifact whose primary power is communication.
He can contact anyone anywhere on Erfworld with it.

If you had a god's cellphone - who do you think you would call?

How long would he have been attuned to the Archendish before he decided to try to contact the Titans themselves? I would guess the moment he woke up the day after he attuned. He points the dish heavenwards, focuses all his energy and puts out the call.

"I'm sorry, that number is no longer in service"

So it comes down to this: If Charlie can't get an answer or pick up Titanic messages using the Titans' own communication network, how could anyone else possibly be able to?

Your assumption is that the Titans would *want* to contact Charlie, answer his call, etc... that doing so would help accomplish what they want, rather than result in Erfworlders acting silly.

In our world humans are good at expecting their leaders to solve their problems and blaming them for everything that goes wrong... rather than help themselves.

[the_tick_rules]

I think we're letting our imaginations carried away with Charlie.

[BLANDCorporatio]

I think we're letting our imaginations carried away with Charlie.

I think we're letting Charlie carry away our imaginations. It will take a concerted effort to repel thinkamancy of that magnitude.

That, or tinfoil hats.

[robak]

There will be a tinfoil hat magic item in the future of Erfworld to repel Thinkamancy. You can bet on that.

[technojunkie]

Stanley in this update:

"Boom. She turned. I'm wasting Faq guys down below, and she's uncroaking 'em and sending 'em into the tower to fight their own guys."

Epic foreshadowing? Or a tease as the authors show us a different really clever way to win?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought of this. Rob's doing an awesome job of distracting us fans

Personally I think now that we've seen an example of the "uncroaked/decrypted tidal wave', we'll probably not see a repeat of that maneuver in Jetstone, so all of the speculation about getting Wanda on the ground may have just gone up in smoke.

[DevilDan]

Which raises the question... How old *is* Erfworld? Not like we could possibly know, but it would bring up a lot more theories on the state of affairs in their world. There could be more than four Arkentools, yet they just haven't been discovered because the world is so new... Or perhaps their world is so old that other Arkentools have drifted from one dying empire to the next, until all knowledge of them died out. Yeah, lots of questions.

Old? How old is a game? There are epochs, eras, to each game. First is the Setup Yuga, when the the gods still rule. After it comes the Warm-up Yuga, when gameplay begins and plans are laid out: everyone works hard. Then comes the Buildup Yuga, when empires are built. Finally comes the Chaos Yuga, when empires burn, at the end of which the board is cleaned and put away.

But the cycle will repeat, as it must.

[gazes_also]

Frankly, i believe in what Charlie has said about the titanic mandate... People are just seeing what they WANT to see
For instance, right now, Wanda believes that she will not croak; the titains are watching over her and she does not need to protect herself... but when it comes down to it the only thing that will save her from croaking is Parson's more level headed thinking

I agree. There is a very good reason for believing Charlie when he says there is no such thing as "The Will of the Titans".
He has 'unmatched thinkamancy' skills.
He has a Titanic artifact whose primary power is communication.
He can contact anyone anywhere on Erfworld with it.

If you had a god's cellphone - who do you think you would call?

How long would he have been attuned to the Archendish before he decided to try to contact the Titans themselves? I would guess the moment he woke up the day after he attuned. He points the dish heavenwards, focuses all his energy and puts out the call.

"I'm sorry, that number is no longer in service"

So it comes down to this: If Charlie can't get an answer or pick up Titanic messages using the Titans' own communication network, how could anyone else possibly be able to?

Your assumption is that the Titans would *want* to contact Charlie, answer his call, etc... that doing so would help accomplish what they want, rather than result in Erfworlders acting silly.

In our world humans are good at expecting their leaders to solve their problems and blaming them for everything that goes wrong... rather than help themselves.

My assumption is rather that if the Titans were communicating with anyone on Erfworld, Charlie would expect at least to have some awareness of it through the Archendish. He can eavesdrop on thinkagrams and connect to the mind of any being on Erfworld; the dish is a Titanic artifact so you would expect it to be particularly sensitive to Titanic broadcast energy. Even if he can't listen in to the messages he should be able to detect any Titans comms traffic if there was any.

The Silence of the Titans means for Charlie that there can be no knowing Will of the Titans.

[Chris Goodwin]

My assumption is rather that if the Titans were communicating with anyone on Erfworld, Charlie would expect at least to have some awareness of it through the Archendish. He can eavesdrop on thinkagrams and connect to the mind of any being on Erfworld; the dish is a Titanic artifact so you would expect it to be particularly sensitive to Titanic broadcast energy. Even if he can't listen in to the messages he should be able to detect any Titans comms traffic if there was any.

The Silence of the Titans means for Charlie that there can be no knowing Will of the Titans.

In a metafictional sense, the Titans are Rob, Xin, and Jamie. In an in-comic sense, the Titans would be the game designers and, to an extent, the players of the game. "Placed here by the Titans" can be as simple as the players saying "Okay, let's see what happens when we throw in some potentially game breaking artifacts."

Parson did ask the right question at the end of book 1: to what extent are the things we do governed by free will? The "will of the Titans" could be as simple as "I move this stack of counters from hex J10 to J9."

I have another theory about Charlie, one that borders even further into tinfoil hat territory...

Spoiler: show

Charlie is another player, somehow PLOTted into the game the same way Parson was. Which is why he gets all of Parson's jokes.

This also, potentially, means that Parson and, if I'm right, Charlie are effectively Titans.

[HandofShadows]

I think all the tolk of Titans makes an assumtion. And that is that there where Titans to start with.

(Great now they will probably burn me at the stake for heresy)

[DevilDan]

I think all the tolk of Titans makes an assumtion. And that is that there where Titans to start with.

(Great now they will probably burn me at the stake for heresy)

The atheist perspective isn't often raised, but it is surely a possibility.

Don't worry, historically it's not the atheists or agnostics who are persecuted, just the actual heretics and schismatics. Admittedly, heathens don't always fare well either.

[Dr Pepper]

Which raises the question... How old *is* Erfworld? Not like we could possibly know, but it would bring up a lot more theories on the state of affairs in their world. There could be more than four Arkentools, yet they just haven't been discovered because the world is so new... Or perhaps their world is so old that other Arkentools have drifted from one dying empire to the next, until all knowledge of them died out. Yeah, lots of questions.

Old? How old is a game? There are epochs, eras, to each game. First is the Setup Yuga, when the the gods still rule. After it comes the Warm-up Yuga, when gameplay begins and plans are laid out: everyone works hard. Then comes the Buildup Yuga, when empires are built. Finally comes the Chaos Yuga, when empires burn, at the end of which the board is cleaned and put away.

But the cycle will repeat, as it must.

So is Parson an avatar of the great Peanut Brahma Eater himself, come to bring enlightenment ot the erflings?

[DoctorJest]

I think all the tolk of Titans makes an assumtion. And that is that there where Titans to start with.

(Great now they will probably burn me at the stake for heresy)

Book1, Page 1 shows us the Titans at work. There is no indication, anywhere, that what we're seeing is anything other than what it appears to be.

[DevilDan]

I think all the tolk of Titans makes an assumtion. And that is that there where Titans to start with.

(Great now they will probably burn me at the stake for heresy)

Book1, Page 1 shows us the Titans at work. There is no indication, anywhere, that what we're seeing is anything other than what it appears to be.

It's been pointed out that that is a narrated portion, perhaps an illustration of the story as it is being told.