#fundament

[k25ff]

IN THE DIM GRARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE, THERE IS SOMETIMES WAR

Friend of mine was developing a 40K-inspired setting, so I thought I'd doodle some of the faction ideas they've had.

[nathanielthetallone]

Firstly I love Oryx characterisation in this episode, secondly I just found that there was new dialogue in the nether in the last of act two that could only be heard before the final act two Misson.

I'm not going to list every conversation, just oryx's opinion so far. He admits that the Proof eternal, the hive themselves, Failed and that he must "understand why. I must understand the path of our lie" he says he will "Find our osmium court and our fathers orrery. There I will remember, and again tame the deep"

He knows that the worms lied to him to Xivu he says "Sister, we were betrayed. Fed lies to fatten worms. I failed to understand"

but still holds to the deep, and Hates the light, when savathûn tell him about the events Ghosts of the deep he is shocked

"You sought my resurrection? With... Light? Betrayer"

I cannot physically describe the sound of betrayal he makes. Seriously it's full of pain and hurt.

He thinks about the oath they made to destroy Taox and reclaim their osmium court and how they did not complete their oath. He quotes himself in the books of sorrow that he thought himself the heir of fundament, to those ten year Krill, but he claims he's not and that he must return first. That is a direct contrast to he says in Verse 5:7 — Forever And A Blade of the books of sorrows

And in all of the conversations one thing keeps getting repeated, That Oryx vowed to understand, that is his nature to understand.

So he turns home to the start of everything, where proof of the greatest lie in the destiny universe lies. And yet he doesn't turn away fully from the sword logic nor the deep, not listening to the pleas of Xivu to return to how it was before his death nor savathûn's attempts at freeing him ( her words not mine) he chooses what he wants, he walks the path HE wants, because he's not War incarnate nor the Witch Queen.

He is Oryx the First navigator and he will understand what happened to the fundament. Aiat

[searsage]

Not me getting eaten alive by d2 sibling drama fic

Imagine that back on fundament

where everything happened on fundament up until the tro fled the osmium court and into the water but like imagine if Aurash stayed behind /was captured and thought dead, however the two Xi-vo and sathona managed to be uplifted by the traveler instead of the witness.. but Aurash was taken by Taox and the court of helium drinkers and presumed dead.

Of course they assume she's dead like the osmium king and 100% vow revenge but instead of finding the light they are uplifted into a golden age by the traveler but not before the former brood mother flees the system amd with her departure any chance of revenge.

At this point years flie by in peace but they keep getting wind of an opposing empire and a king with the ability to take and that said king plans to assimilate their respective courts of light.

Now imagine Aurash did undergo the kingmorph and the other two had no damn clue.

And oryx still mad and out of the loop and unreasonable and like the whole story is the two sisters desperately trying to protect their home from this angry confused misdirected wreaking ball of a traumatized king who they think wants to usurp their paradise and don't realize was once their sister.

Like the hurt comfort potential is peak as is the awkward family drama and sibling bonding and and and NO IM NOT STILL SAD ABOUT DEPRESSED BUT STILL VERY HOT SPLINTER ORYX NOT AT ALL.

Or distraught Savatun...

And I like to think they are all so petty about everything in only a way your siblings can be petty. and oryx still believes in the sword logic so...yeah.

[fundamentverse]

What is Fundament?

Fundament (or FUNDAMENT if you're feeling fancy and self-important) is a space fantasy setting. While it was originally envisioned as a setting for wargaming, it could support all sorts of creative works.

A very quick summary: Fundament is about idealistic factions of humans and transhumans arguing and fighting over a chaotic, supernaturally tinged galaxy. The setting is intentionally loose and mutable - there is no one true canon.

A slightly longer summary may be found below.

Setting Principles

These are the big foundational ideas behind Fundament. You'll note that even these are pretty loose - that's deliberate.

The setting is our galaxy in the distant future. The exact year is largely irrelevant, but it's probably on the order of thousands or tens of thousands of years from now. Almost nothing is left of the nations and cultural touchstones we'd recognise. The history of the setting is deliberately blurry both in and out of universe, and even defined elements can be vague, unreliable, or contradictory.

All known sapient beings are human or of human origin. Some might be divergent enough to seem like aliens, but everyone is either a human, an offshoot of humanity, or created by humans (not necessarily on purpose).

Technology is highly advanced and loosely defined. This is space fantasy, not hard sci-fi. A few things that definitely exist:

FTL travel is possible through space-folding drives and static portals. All forms of FTL rely on navigational beacons; it's possible to travel without a guiding beacon, but this is slow and unreliable.

Transhuman technology is ubiquitous. Almost everyone has some biological and/or mechanical augmentations, though some are more obvious and radical than others.

Artificial general intelligences - free-willed sapient machines - are possible but somewhat rare, as they consume a lot of resources and don't solve many problems that don't have more conventional solutions. Most extant AGIs are passion projects or religious endeavours. They are usually eccentric, larger than life characters, and can process information with a computer's flawless speed and precision, but they're no more murderous or megalomaniacal than humans (which isn't saying much).

The galaxy is split among many diverse factions, each driven by a broad guiding philosophy. Ideally, these philosophies should make internal sense and never be uncomplicatedly good or evil, though great acts of good or evil (ideally both) may be committed in their names.

No one faction is strong enough to claim galactic dominance. The Commonwealth, the last of several attempts at a galaxy-spanning empire, held that position for a while, but it's long gone now. Factions are not united fronts - they have subdivisions and splinter groups that can quarrel with each other as much as they do with other factions.

Magic is real... kind of. In parallel with the generally understood laws of reality, there exist a number of lesser cosmic forces called Fundaments, which embody abstract, almost narrative forces like Conquest, Fortitude, and Speed. The Fundaments are mostly overruled by conventional physics, but they are slightly alive, and spacetime distortions can give them windows to bleed through into the material realm. These distortions can be targeted and shaped with advanced technology; this is generally called magic, but it’s treated as a branch of science.

People understand the Fundaments well enough to squeeze useful effects out of them, but nobody knows, definitively, how they work. All models, including the "parallel physics" one outlined above, are, at best, "wrong but useful".

The setting should feel volatile, absurd, and at least somewhat hopeful. There is space for darkness and tragedy in Fundament, but humankind and the galaxy should never feel completely, inevitably doomed - though there's no guarantee that they'll survive in a recognisable shape.

The inhabitants of the setting don't have to believe all of this.

Faction Outlines

These seven factions are just the ones I've come up with. You can and should invent your own if you like. I'm planning on some writeups with more detail on each of these down the line, so these are just quick capsule summaries.

Sleepless: A splinter faction that seceded from the Commonwealth, grew to outmatch it, and pushed it into a self-annihilating civil war. Arrogant, driven believers in the Apex, a hypothetical future inflection point at which humankind will have reached its maximum potential.

Praxidists: A loose coalition of independent-ish worlds and polities, drawn closer together by the rise of the Sleepless. Proud, free-spirited individualists who believe that personal liberty and excellence naturally lead to collective harmony.

Vigilites: The rough successors to the Commonwealth, risen from the ashes after its collapse. Paranoid, diligent survivalists preparing for a Dark Forest scenario, the inevitable fate (or so they believe) of any society that grows too large and powerful.

Epimetheans: Descended from an abandoned pre-Commonwealth bio-engineering project to create a hardier spacefaring subspecies of human. Belligerent, fearless cultists of pure creativity, fighting a forever war against the implacable evils of entropy and the cruelty of a cold, inert universe.

Mendicants: A new religious movement created and spread by refugees, defectors, and hapless neutrals caught up in the Commonwealth civil war. Zealous, ingenious worshippers of AGIs, believing that they will find the best path for humankind, as humans themselves have resolutely failed to do.

Blueshifters: Ragtag coteries of exiles, criminals, and malcontents, bound by their shared faith in faithlessness. Wanton, joyous libertine nihilists, denouncing "greater good" ideologies as distractions from the raw pleasure of existence.

Voidlorn: The warped, half-dead husks of very early space colonists, both destroyed and preserved by primitive Fundament use. Cold, steadfast guardians of humankind locked in a complicated collective love affair with the void, which they believe is alive and utterly infatuated with those that defy it.

[stasis-shatter]

Scattered Mournful Verses

Clawed remains of runes in the inner sanctums of the Dreadnaught.

O Father ours; What would you think of us?

Your mind was once so focused - so acute

You held our small weak bodies to your chest

Pointed to stars, spoke stories of wonder.

But that is gone. You have been long dead.

We do what we must to survive. Aia. Aiat.

***

Tell us, Father

What should we regret?

What became of us -

Or what did not?

Small things, curled up,

Clinging together for warmth

Awaiting the day,

Awaiting to be snatched in the night.

The traitoress who raised us

Ever-bitter, ever-despising

Father-ours, would you have protected us?

Shielded us, if you were able?

How simple! Timidity and shaking claws.

Orrery, Syzygy, treachery.

***

Tell us, Father

Which to ask forgiveness for?

What we are? What we became?

What we could not be?

What we are? What we are not?

Aiat. We survived. Aiat. You did not.

[twitterexile]

Trump Cartoon.

[themothface]

HC 19 what

This is the first instance of "Shark Energy" Fundament in the comic. It's a long standing sight gag in Biee's Headcrew stories that Fundament gets shark teeth when she's angry or stern. I started floating the idea of hinting that Fundament has shark powers, and Biee thought it was cute. My first "innovation" was giving her dark, spooky, great-white shark eyes whem she gets mad to go with her teef. Occassionally, you might see other sharky special effects, if you stick with the comic, wait and see! Actually, that's what gave me the idea to give her dark, glossy eyes in general, so that worked out!

Also, first hint that Brain and Anxiety get up to kinky boots together.