#faction paradox adjacent

[thienvaldram]

The Book of the Snowstorm – Readthrough/Review Part 7

Framing Story (Scenes 16-18)

Did that just imply… Urizen was God. Like the ‘God’ mentioned by the Toymaker in the Giggle was actually Urizen (and thus Rassilon)? Also a Church on Ruby Road reference with the goblin. I like Rich’s little section, and in general I’m curious as to how the events in the 925 Universe tie to the Snowstorm in the library and how the mysterious-99-per-cent-sure-he’s-not-Auteur stranger factors into it, if they do at all.

The God Who Came For Christmas

Hello again FASA War Chief. The glimpse into the Archon’s perception of one another was fascinating and I think I get what it’s trying to do. Imply the FASA War Chief is a Self-Hypnotised Master trying to disguise. Either way, fun little piece even if (IIRC) it’s a sequel to a DW RPG story that I have not seen.

Presents

Interesting piece. The Fantastic Realm is an interesting setting and I like the use of comic book terminology alongside more DWEU concepts. As well as the general exploration of the infinitely variable constantly resetting characters of comic books. Captain America, or well… Captain Yank, was a good choice of character for that IMO and I appreciated the references to other suspiciously similar substitutes for Marvel’s other cast members.

The Cathedral of Winter

Ok so first of all, Abraytha is really fun, and I appreciate his general upbeat demeanour and sense of adventure and fun. Also his aesthetic is cool. The Archons of Winter were really funny, and have similarly funny implications for their temporal counterparts (In that a Multiversal visitor with the appropriate equipment could in theory bypass their defences almost as easily as Abraytha did to the Archons of Winter). The cultural differences between Xiantio and Abraytha were also really fun. Aesthetic was great too, just the general winter theming. (Also Lotto cameo?????)

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 2 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

The Book of the War

Synopsis

The Great Houses: Immovable. Implacable. Unchanging. Old enough to pass themselves off as immortal, arrogant enough to claim ultimate authority over the Spiral Politic.

The Enemy: Not so much an army as a hostile new kind of history. So ambitious it can re-write worlds, so complex that even calling it by its name seems to underestimate it.

Faction Paradox: Renegades, ritualists, saboteurs and subterfugers, the criminal-cult to end all criminal-cults, happy to be caught in the crossfire and ready to take whatever's needed from the wreckage… assuming the other powers leave behind a universe that's habitable.

The War: A fifty-year-old dispute over the two most valuable territories in existence: "cause" and "effect."

Marking the first five decades of the conflict, THE BOOK OF THE WAR is an A to Z of a self-contained continuum and a complete guide to the Spiral Politic, from the beginning of recordable time to the fall of humanity. Part story, part history and part puzzle-box, this is a chronicle of protocol and paranoia in a War where the historians win as many battles as the soldiers and the greatest victory of all is to hold on to your own past…

Propaganda

Is it about Dr Who? I mean, sort of. Arguably. You could say the Doctor is present in it. Somewhat. Not by name tho because that would be illegal. But definitely there are uh. well. there's definitely stuff in it that's DWesque. It's Dr Who Adjacent. It's Dr Whoish. Strong Dr Who vibes. (@eighthdoctor )

Experimental sci-fantasy that defined the Time War and started a whole series of its own. (anonymous)

The City of the Dead

Synopsis

“Nothing can get into the TARDIS,” the Doctor whispered. Then he realised that Nothing had.

New Orleans, the early 21st century. A dealer in morbid artefacts has been murdered. A charm carved from human bone is missing. An old plantation, miles from any water, has been destroyed by a tidal wave.

Anji goes dancing. Fitz goes grave-robbing. The Doctor attracts the interest of a homicide detective and the enmity of a would-be magician. He wants to find out the secret of the redneck thief and his blind wife. He'd like to help the crippled curator of a museum of magic. He's trying to refuse politely the request of a crazy young artist that he pose naked with the man's wife.

Most of all, he needs to figure out what all of them have to do with the Void that is hunting him down.

Before it catches him.

Propaganda

It has dark magic and someone is hunting the Doctor in his dreams. Also great worldbuilding. (anonymous)

[wearethewitches]

#like. the they made us from war. specifically the vampire thing #right after they invoked the timeless child too was basically rtd being like #oh you adapted the other one? time to bring back more fucked up time lord stuff #like sorry vampire superstitions from outside the universe? what else could it be like for real

i think you're right and also raise you this: upon the realisation that they did the eternals dirty in s12, rtd said "hold my tea" so he could bring scherzo to life.

Wait so like. The vampire bit. The vampire bit and 14 getting a bad feeling about invoke a superstition. I know this could be argued to kind of be a scherzo adaptation but like rtd i think just invoked the spiral yssgaroth?????? Like i see no contradictions to this opening the door to the enemy as a reflection of the time lords fears again????

[doctornolonger]

So what is the current status of Grandfather Paradox now? From what I recall he wiped himself from existence (putting aside Gramps), is that correct? Has anything changed in that regard, assuming you know? Idk maybe he now exists as a psychic brainworm who makes people think about him to manifest him in existence. (Not unlike the Cres-T̶ʜ̶ᴇ̶ʀ̶ᴇ̶ ̶ɪ̶s̶ ̶ɴ̶ᴏ̶ ̶H̶ᴏ̶ᴜ̶s̶ᴇ̶ ̶ɪ̶ɴ̶ ̶ᴛ̶ʜ̶ᴇ̶ ̶O̶ᴄ̶ᴇ̶ᴀ̶ɴ̶) Idk. What do you know? I’m just curious, it’s been a while since I read up about him.

Yeah, he founded House Paradox with his four lieutenants, was imprisoned in Shada, escaped, and then cut off his arm and erased himself from history. That's where the official record ends.

Conspicuously one-armed shadows have popped up many times during rituals throughout the Faction Paradox series, and of course there are several figures with a good claim to being the Grandfather, in the sense that he has become incarnate again in them: Cousin Justine; Cousin Shuncucker; as you mentioned, Gramps; the Doctor in The Ancestor Cell; and even Academician Devonire.

Because of a Faction-adjacent thing I've been writing, I've been entertaining the possibility that the Grandfather was actually an egregore: an entity which arose through the thoughts of the four "lieutenants" and ritually manifested itself through them. Since he was always masked, did the Houses ever verify his identity? Did the lieutenants alternate who would dress up and channel him?

The only flaw in this theory is that Lawrence Miles told us in no uncertain terms exactly who Grandfather Paradox was!

[a-wartime-paradox]

A New Life, and an Old Memory (Prologue to And the Carnival Awaits!: Crockus)

This is a fanfiction based in the 8th Morbuis Doctor, an interpretation of the Academy Era (although not the normal doctors), and the War in Heaven (Faction Paradox).

Please note that this story does have a solid position in Continuity, but I'm not gonna reveal that position yet. It's quite complex, and will be explained slowly.

Chapter One: A New Life, and An Old Memory

I am the eighth incarnation of a particularly interventionist...

The console began to make that weird noise, kind of like a... "vroom-ch-ch-ch--rooom". Not the normal sound it made a de-(and, to be fair, re)-materialisation. So I picked up my cane, throwing it through the air to re-catch it. But there's no one to watch me. Not letting the thought cloud my mind, I tapped the console with the end of my trusty old cane. I'd had it for four lifetimes, if you counted this one. I'm not sure I would, though. Hardly a lifetime, is it, when I've just started out. To be honest, another reason the number four doesn't really work here is because in my sixth and seventh lives I didn't use it. Just picked it up just now, it had been laying on the floor for... oh, who knows how long? Centuries, maybe.

Sorry for all that rambling, I'm still in post-regenerative stress and I'm quite overwhelmed. Right. So I presume you'd like to know how I died. Tough. That's my business, fuck you.

Maybe I'll write it down at some point, but not yet. Memory's to raw.

--

The colourfully-clothed Initiate jolted out of his "dream" (it didn't feel like a dream though, it felt so real) and he... wait no. I. I am the Initiative. Start over. I jolted out of my ...vision... and looked up at the group of fellow students around me; the Inquiry. Koschei was sitting there, his black hair contrasting beautifully with his red robes that had golde encrustings. He was imitating the Cardinals, bless 'im. Next to him sat Magnus. People often got them confused, because they were actually part of a glitch in the looms; at birth their biodata had been identical. Biological species would call this phenomenon "being twins". Ushas and Trelundar (full name: Romanadvoratrelundar) were sitting, legs in a mess, on the floor staring intently at the golden regenerative energy surrounding me. Even then, I could see the spark of the renegade within her. Wait, even then? This is now. Must be more affects of the trip... Temporal disposition.

"Alright, particularly", scoffed Torvic ("particularly" was his nickname for me, for some reason), "Maybe you can make the Eighth Man Bound, but you'll never be cardinal.", and he walked off, shoving Mortimus to the side as he went.

"Don't listen to that bully", Advora said reassuringly, and she put her hand onto mine. In that very moment, I felt myself fall away into the Eighth Man Bound again...

---

... and we're back. No idea what that flashback was for. Felt weird, is all I can say.

I saw a piece of Victorian architecture left over from the recent regeneration of my timeship, stuck inside my new basic console. That must've been what was causing the issue, the "vroom-ch-ch-ch'rooom" noise. I reached down into the wiring and pulled out the wreck and tossed it to the side; it was a sour memory of recent events. Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind, and I looked down. Like I suspected, I saw golden Victorian attire with a blue cloak. Shit. I ripped the blue cloak off, pulled the jacket off, and undid my trousers. Must find new clothes, new life. She - the timeship, that is - started to make her proper noise: "vroom-vrooom". As she took me to my next adventure, I strolled, in only my underwear, to the adjacent corridor. Through the door, turn left, turn right, go down, up, backwards, blah, blah, blah. Found the Clothes Room. I walked around, stocking all the clothes; the many jackets, tweeds, and dresses. Trying on many different outfits, I finally decided on orange-y and red-y checked trousers, a white shirt, red jacket, and a long blue blazer. New me, new outfit. Walking out, my eye caught a red bowtie, and I against my "better" judgement I picked it up, along with a pocket watch I saw resting on the chair nearby.

Say hello to Crockus, for he is I, and the Carnival awaits!

------------------------------------------------------------

Next chapter: Celestine Intervention

I know this is very short, but I just wanted to get something out there to begin with. The next part should hopefully be longer.

[rassilon-imprimatur]

Fugitive of the Judoon thoughts...

1) To me, everything with the two Doctors in this episode felt less like 13 literally stumbling upon a retconned and/or Unknown To Us™ past a la Name of the Doctor/Day of the Doctor and more... if Doctor Who of a Continued and Connected Narrative from the Original 1963 Show™ suddenly speared into the middle of a timeline where Doctor Who was rebooted on TV from scratch. I think this is far more leaning towards “alternate timelines occupying the same space” a la the EDAs with The Infinity Doctors, the various hints and implications towards the Doctor in Faction Paradox and City of the Saved, and The Blue Angel than it is “the Doctor has forgotten a bit of her past.” 

2) Ruth is already one of the best Doctors ever. One of the best Doctor outfits. Easily one of the New Series’ best console rooms. Using a Hartnell/Troughton Police Box is really cool.

3) I think this is more Timeless Child adjacent than it is strictly Timeless Child relevant, if that makes sense. Maybe the Master destroying Gallifrey has led to timelines mixing and merging? I’m sticking with this for now, with Ruth and her timeline being a connected result? “Time is swirling around me,” the universe ain’t doing so hot at the moment. 

4) Being me, I’m actually almost as excited about whatever the hell’s going on with “the Lone Cyberman” as I am about Jo’s Doctor. Really intrigued. 

5) It sucks to say that the companions are most definitely still the least engaging aspect of the series for me, even at their most delightful and fun (and they are all very lovely). I’m eating well this season, the craziness and the new lore and the kitchen sink are all a good and powerful thriving energy for me, but it’s very telling that an episode I consider one of the era’s best barely utilizes the bubs whatsoever. 

6) Jodie’s been REALLY thriving this season, between getting her own Master and her relationship with Ruth. 

7) I’m having a lot of fun. 

[anywhere-in-time-and-space]

Before Big Finish

Everyone knows about Big Finish’s DW audio dramas, but how many people are aware of the very first Doctor Who audio productions? From a handful of official BBC radio dramas, to fanmade productions distributed on cassette tapes, here’s a rundown of Doctor Who audio productions from a time before Big Finish, plus links to listen where available!

Official BBC radio dramas 

Rather surprisingly, the BBC only issued a small number of official Doctor Who audio productions. Most of them were broadcast as radio shows while the television series was still running, and a few of them were remade into novelizations (most notably, The Ghosts of N-Space and The Paradise of Death, both by Barry Letts). Here’s a list of productions with links to listen and short summaries:

Doctor Who and the Pescatons (Internet Archive)

Featuring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Doctor Who and the Pescatons was the first original, officially licensed Doctor Who audio production. From the TARDIS wiki: “The Doctor finds himself in the capital city of London, where the population is bewildered and trembling beneath the violent onslaught of a merciless invader... This is the story of a dying Planet, of a Deadly Weed, and the merciless Creatures themselves. It is a Challenge to the Doctor—a frightening race against time...”

Exploration Earth: The Time Machine (Internet Archive)

An educational story that used the Doctor Who format to present information about the creation of the Earth. It features the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith facing off against Megron, High Lord of Chaos, as they witness the formation of planet Earth. 

Slipback (Audible) 

Features Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Sixth Doctor and Peri. From the TARDIS wiki: “The Sixth Doctor and Peri share an adventure on board a starship taken over by its dual personality computer, which tries to take the ship back to the dawn of the universe and start life again. Along the way the duo meet a couple of comedy policemen, an art thief and a captain who wants to infect his crew with one of his diseases...”

The Paradise of Death (Internet Archive)

A Third Doctor audio drama written by Barry Letts, The Paradise of Death features Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, and Nicholas Courtney reprising their roles from the television series. From the TARDIS wiki: “When a horrific and inexplicable death occurs at Space World, a new theme park on Hampstead Heath, UNIT is called in to investigate. The Doctor is highly suspicious. Just who controls the Parakon Corporation, the shadowy organisation behind the running of the park? What is "Experienced Reality" and what are the limits of its awesome powers?”

The Ghosts of N-Space (Internet Archive)

The Ghosts of N-Space follows the events of The Paradise of Death, although it also functions as a stand-alone story, and was the final audio production to feature Jon Pertwee. From the TARDIS wiki: “The Brigadier's ancient great-uncle Mario seems unsurprised by the spectres which haunt his even more ancient Sicilian castle. But when the Doctor comes to investigate he finds himself faced with a danger as great as any he has yet encountered.”

The Audio Visuals

The Audio Visuals were a fan group that cropped up when Doctor Who was cancelled in 1989. They created a series of twenty-eight amateur, unlicensed audio productions (plus a pilot episode); many members of the group went on to work with BBV Productions, Big Finish, and the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. Below is a link to the entire series, uploaded to the Internet Archive: 

The Audio Visuals (Remastered) (Internet Archive)

BBV Productions

Some of the people involved in the Audio Visuals productions were also involved with BBV, a production company known for its “off brand” Doctor Who content. From the TARDIS wiki: “It was a commercial enterprise founded to serve Doctor Who fans who were starved of content between the broadcasts of Survival and Rose. Towards this end it heavily used Doctor Who actors and, when possible, characters. BBV therefore quickly gained the reputation for putting out content that was ‘almost official’ or ‘nearly Doctor Who’.” In addition to fims and video content, BBV released four “seasons” of audio content between 1998-2004. There are too many productions to link to each one in this post, but here’s an overview of the main series BBV produced: 

The Time Travellers (Internet Archive, first episode)

The Time Travellers, or Professor and Ace, is a 10-episode series featuring Sylvester McCoy as the Professor (later the Dominie) and Sophie Aldred as Ace (later Alice). Their characters are very similar to the roles they played in Doctor Who - so much so, in fact, that the BBC became worried about copyright and BBV had to adjust the characters’ names and personalities accordingly. The first six episodes are available on the Internet Archive; the tenth and final one is on Youtube; all of them are available to purchase on Audible. 

Adventures in a Pocket Universe (Audible, first episode) 

Adventures in a Pocket Universe is a two-episode series featuring John Leeson and Lalla Ward as K-9 and his Mistress. It was intended as a sequel to the TV serial Warriors’ Gate; however, while BBV was able to acquire the rights to K-9′s character directly from his creator, they did not have the rights to Romana or E-Space. The audios therefore follow K-9 and his Mistress as they travel through Ecto-Space. This kind of Doctor Who-adjacent content is a common theme in BBV productions, and allowed the company to release products for fans of the show while keeping away from copyright infringement. 

The Stranger Chronicles (Audible, first episode)

An audio series following the same story as BBV’s video series The Stranger; both series feature Colin Baker. There are two audio episodes, and the second one was remade as the sixth video installment. 

Faction Paradox (Internet Archive, first episode)

From the TARDIS wiki: “The Faction Paradox series is a standalone collection of audio, prose, and comic stories set in and around the War in Heaven, introduced in Lawrence Miles' 1997 Eighth Doctor novel Alien Bodies... By the year 2000, BBV Productions had agreed to produce The Faction Paradox Protocols audio series. These audios introduced several concepts that would later become staples of the Faction Paradox range, such as the Faction's shadow-weapons and alternate names like "Great Houses" for the Time Lords or "timeships" for TARDISes.” Six episodes were released, beginning with The Eleven Day Empire; all six episodes are available on the Internet Archive.  

BBV released a handful of other audio dramas, featuring characters such as the Rani, Zygons, Cyberons (BBV’s off-brand Cybermen), Sontarans, and Krynoids. Check these pages for more info: 

BBV Official Wiki 

TARDIS Wiki 

Bill & Ben Video - Wikipedia

[eighthdoctor]

Hello! so i've been following you for agggees and want to get into the faction paradox series but i cant really make heads or tales of where to start. If its ok to ask, do you have any suggestions on where i should begin? Alien Bodies is the first book if im not mistaken, is it best to start there? :) thanks! hope this isnt a dumb question

this is not a dumb question this is a very intelligent question!

unfortunately as with most intelligent questions the answer is quite long

tl;dr: alien bodies is a good place to start but so are most places

FP happens both within Dr Who (as part of the eighth doctor adventures/EDAs) and without Dr Who (as its own Thing). which one you start with makes no real difference but there’s a slightly different rec list

if you choose to go the dr who route: I highly recommend starting with vampire science. while it’s not Technically FP it’s a very good EDA and also you meet sam. it’s a good idea to have a handle on sam before tackling alien bodies.

alien bodies will make no sense! it’s not supposed to! it was the first published FP work so like, there’s that. just go along for the ride.

other EDAs which deal with the faction directly: unnatural history, interference book one, interference book two, and ancestor cell. unnatural history is AMAZING and features fitz, i don’t have a good rec on hand for meeting fitz alas. interference 1&2 also makes no sense, this is part of the appeal imho. ancestor cell is what happened when the EDA editors took control of the rapidly spiraling FP plot away from lawrence miles and tried to wrap it up in one book. it didn’t work well.

the scarlet empress, shadows of avalon, and the taking of planet 5 are all FP adjacent. shadows of avalon in particular is super important for the independent FP books even tho the faction don’t actually show up.

if you choose to go the FP route: i am less familiar here and also several years out of date, but there are the Mad Norwegian press books (of which The Book of the War is the first and also the series bible), the Obverse books (ongoing i believe), and the BBV audios. these uhhhhhh i would recommend reading of the city of the saved FIRST just because of the spoiler which i happen to love and adore but it comes up elsewhere.

also there is dead romance. this is technically a VNA (virgin new adventure, with 7) but also it was rewritten later to not have the doctor and be published independently, and also contains a series of short essays most notably the cosmology of the spiral politic, which is How This Works for the writing team (and contains spoilers), and toy story, which is................relevant. i think. to some things. i can’t say whether dead romance is a good place to start (i personally would say alien bodies or the book of the war) bc it makes NO SENSE but it’s MIND BLOWING so you should read it at some point anyway.

[antoine-roquentin]

The Gulf Crisis between Qatar and its neighbors (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE) is no closer to being settled than when it erupted in May 2017. The differences — including displeasure by the Saudi-led faction with Qatar’s relations with Iran, its pro-Muslim Brotherhood stance and its alleged support of terrorism — have only heated after a controversial new documentary aired by Qatar government-owned Al Jazeera Arabic last month that accuses Bahrain of coordinating with terrorists.

The 52-minute film, “Playing with Fire,” makes extremely serious accusations about the Bahraini royal family’s alleged ties with Salafist-jihadist terrorists. It claims to expose recordings and communications that prove that the Bahraini kingdom recruited Al-Qaeda terrorists to establish a cell to carry out targeted assassinations of key figures within the country’s Shi’a opposition. According to “Playing with Fire,” King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa authorized the operation, even intervening with Riyadh to release Mohammed Saleh, an Al-Qaeda commander, from a Saudi prison.

The documentary alleges that Bahraini intelligence officials and Al-Qaeda coordinated acts of terrorism in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan Baluchistan. According to Al Jazeera’s conclusions, in 2006, Bahraini intelligence officials recruited Hosham Baluchi, the ex-leader of Ansar al-Forghan, whom the Iranians later killed in 2015, for such terror operations in Iran’s restive areas near Pakistan.

Predictably, the government of Bahrain had harsh words for Qatar and its state-owned pan-Arab network. Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed said  the documentary was merely a “new episode in a series of conspiracies from a rogue state against the Kingdom of Bahrain, and against the stability of the entire region.” Packed with “lies and fallacies against the state Bahrain,” the documentary’s allegations have no basis in fact, asserted Bahrain’s chief diplomat. He went further, doubling down on the narratives that drove Manama and other Arab capitals to begin blockading Qatar in 2017, stating that Doha “has become the biggest threat to the Gulf Cooperation Council.”

Mohamed Mubarak, a Bahraini journalist based in the United Kingdom, spoke to RT and fired back against Al Jazeera Arabic’s documentary. He claimed that in 2006 Bahraini authorities instead captured a group of extremists and that the video footage of Al-Qaeda commander Saleh used in the documentary was fabricated in order to “blackmail” Bahrain’s rulers.  Mubarak claimed that “Bahrain is a spearhead in combating terrorism [which has joined] the international coalition in fighting ISIS, either in Syria or Iraq.” For Qatar to level such accusations against Bahrain was “paradoxical and ironic” given Al Jazeera’s history of providing a platform for Al-Qaeda members and sympathizers, Mubarak said.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) also delivered an official response to the documentary. The terrorist group released a statement denying such links with the Bahraini state. The Al-Qaeda franchise asserted that such accusations of a secret agreement between the Al Khalifas and Al-Qaeda operatives illustrated how GCC member-states remain “keen to persuade their master Trump of who is the most loyal of his devoted workers in the war against the mujahideen.”  

There have been accusations for years about the Arabian Peninsula’s monarchies making backdoor deals with Al-Qaeda and other Salafist-jihadist factions, often within the framework of utilizing these Sunni extremists to push back against Iranian/Shi’a influence in the region.

In the Yemeni civil war, numerous media sources, including the Associated Press, have alleged coordination between the Saudi/Emirati-led coalition and AQAP. This reporting from Yemen claimed that Riyadh and Abu Dhabi cut “secret deals with al-Qaida fighters, paying some to leave key cities and towns and letting others retreat with weapons, equipment and wads of looted cash … hundreds more were recruited to join the coalition itself.”

There are several pieces of evidence showing that both sides in the GCC dispute were seen by Western intelligence to be supporting terrorist groups in the earlier stages of the Syrian war. A leaked memo, published in October 2016 by WikiLeaks, which was sent as an attachment in an email from Hillary Clinton, said: “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to Isis and other radical groups in the region.”

A declassified document from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency predicted in August  2012 the rise of the Islamic State and said that the U.S. and European and Gulf Arab allies were supporting the establishment of a salafist principality in eastern Syria, which the document predicted, two years in advance, would give rise to an “Islamic State.” The document said:

“Western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey are supporting these efforts” by Syrian “opposition forces” to “control the eastern areas (Hasaka and Der Zor), adjacent to Western Iraqi provinces (Mosul and Anbar)  … there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).”

Then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told a Harvard University audience in 2015 that, “Our biggest problem is our allies,” naming Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE. “What did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad, except that the people who were being supplied were [Jabhat] al-Nusra and Al-Qaida and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.” Biden later went on an apology tour of the region, after complaints from the UAE, and he tried to withdraw his remarks.

Ironically, a main justification for the 26-month blockade of Qatar, imposed by half of the Saudi-led GCC’s member-states and Egypt, has been Doha’s alleged support for Al-Qaeda and other groups, from Islamic State to Lebanese Hezbollah.

n the past, before the ongoing GCC crisis, all Arab Gulf monarchies essentially joined a collective effort to fortress each other from such accusations made by Western politicians, think tanks and media.

Notwithstanding major differences between each GCC member, these six states largely operated as one family in the sense that they defended each other in discourse surrounding such alleged ties between royal families of Arabian sheikdoms and terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, in which all but one of the 19 hijackers came from countries that are currently blockading Qatar (15 Saudis, two Emiratis, and one Egyptian), nearly all in the GCC had to bend over backwards to demonstrate to Washington and other Western governments that Gulf regimes were fully on board with America’s “war on terror.”

In the current era, however, there is mudslinging and finger pointing within the GCC as the war of narratives rages on.

[notesinthearchives-blog]

Blight's Heresy [Faction Paradox: culture]

Though most tacticians and theorists of the War have, following the example of the likes of House Strategist Entarodora, agreed that the War will either end in a victory so total that the victors become history itself or that it would end in the War being retroactively annulled, this is not the only theory. There are many, and the various lesser species thinkers that actually find out about it are only too eager to add their own to the pile, but perhaps the most influential is the most alarming: Blight's Heresy.

Created by Faction member Father Blight as a deliberate riposte to this school of thought, at its most basic it stated that by the very nature of being a War fought by the Great Houses it simply could not end. The sheer scale on which the Houses operate mean that every action they take has more unintended consequences than anyone can calculate, which results in the War spreading further.

Were the Houses ever to successfully put down the Faction, the Celestis and the Enemy they would then have to contend with the entirety of space-time being set alight from both the shockwaves of these powers falling and the invading angry masses that were harmed in the process of fighting their original enemies. Indeed, Father Blight argued that this was already happening, based upon the so called Bottle campaigns and an alarmingly similar War breaking out among the Houses's counterparts in the Obverse.

Adding in the time active nature of the Houses means the boundaries of this endless War are simply not stable. Whilst Blight allows that an end of sorts could exist where in all relevant sides retreat to lick their wounds and hide away from the War to such an extent that the a period of static battle lines and unofficial neutrality ensued, he insists that this would be temporary. The time active nature of the combatants would result in at least one side trying to gain access to this hypothetical post War universe, either to escape from the War in some manner or to attempt to gather reinforcements from their sympathetic inheritors and descendants, which would result in the enemies of this side gaining access to the post War universe in order to either counter the original side or use the same tactic themselves. This would continue until the so called post War universe was not in fact post War in the slightest: the future "end" of the War being pushed back eternally.

Moreover, Blight argued that the beginning of the War is also not static. By Blight's time, it was not unknown for the War period to intersect with the pre-War period, but he took this a step further. By the very nature of the linear time, those that can access earlier in their enemies' timeline have more power over their enemies' lives, meaning that the nature of time itself pushes all powers in the War to access earlier and earlier into their own history, if not to hurt their enemy then to defend themselves. This results in more encounters with their past selves, resulting in more people pre War being made aware of the War before it even happens and therefore the "beginning" of the War being pushed to earlier and earlier dates. Blight even argued that most of the pre-War attempted incursions by the lesser species into House territory was the result of the then future versions of the Houses betraying or attempting to commit genocide upon these species, and the respective lesser species mistakenly attacking the rather alarmed and confused Houses from their own present.

Blight likened this steady spreading of the War at first to a cancer in the structure of space-time itself, before taking to describing the War itself as akin to kudzu growing across every possible dimension. Moreover, he would say that the War itself was functioning as a living organism with the the War itself being its "body", the parts of space-time not yet at War yet adjacent to it (whether past, future or another timeline or dimension) being soil and nutrients in which it can put down "roots".

At first, it was clear that Blight was not taking this theory seriously as such, at least not when taken to its furthest point. At first, it was merely an attempt at antagonising the House theorists. Indeed, he was rather alarmed when he found evidence that suggested to him that his theory was true. That is not to say it was true as such, but to the Faction such things don't necessarily matter: perception of how things are being of great importance to the Faction, Father Blight was rather concerned about giving the War itself a life and intelligence of its own by encouraging it to be perceived as such by those studying it. Whilst one doesn't get into the Faction without enjoying such things in the abstract (or at least the way these things annoy the Great Houses) such an entity was rather frightening to Father Blight in practice: his vision of a War without end essentially being the horrors of the Second Wave being visited on the Faction forever.

Father Blight's horror eventually led to him committing suicide via time loop in order that his theory be trapped with him. Needless to say, he failed. At the present, both the Great Houses and most of the Faction are doing their best to ignore Blight's Heresy, though some isolated covens and particularly war-like sects of the Faction have taken to believing in Blight's Heresy and have granted the War itself a seat among the spirits the Faction would traditionally acknowledge.

[thienvaldram]

The Book of the Snowstorm – Readthrough/Review Part 1

Part 1

I will first clarify that I am not a great reviewer especially for something as passionate as this. I will endeavour to do my best though.

Foreword

Does this count? It’s an real life statement than a story but I did enjoy how it contextualises the anthology and I’m a fan of the light, but not mean spirited, jab at the 60th Anniversary’s more blatant and flamboyant celebrations and the general sentiment that the Third Universe is too big to be spanned by any one story or copyright or anything.

Previously on the Multiverse

Fun little rundown of just how big this little section of the wider multiverse really is. From the Archons, to the 10,000 Dawns to the Cupids and more. I admit I’m not familiar with a lot of it but this did a pretty good job making it seem like fun.

Scene 1

Nice intro, like the setting and this is pretty much my first intro to the characters besides brief readings of the wikis entry on the Cactus and the Corpse (I really need to get to Horrors of Arcbeatle at some point though quite frankly my wider knowledge of this part of the Universe needs a lot more filling in). Either way, nice little setup with Martisa and Callum trapped in a room with three unknown elements.

Magic Bird of Fire

To be honest, I find it difficult to reasonably review pieces that serve as simple little character pieces like this (Which may make the rest of this book a bunch of very similar short reviews like this tbh). SIGNET’s an interesting group to contrast with UNIT and Torchwood and PROBE and the like but this isn’t even really all that much about them, more about Aoife specifically. Fun characterisation and a neat little setting but not too much more I can say than that. I enjoyed it.

Scene 2

I do like the way the framing narration weaves the stories into its narrative. Linking the title of Magic Bird of Fire to the missing Rich and connecting Coloth’s presently missing circumstances to the following story.

The Dinosaur in the Snow

Ok so can’t review this one. For the potentially obvious implications that it was me who wrote it and that seems a little unfair. Best I can say is I enjoyed writing it and am proud of how it turned out, especially with Aristide’s editing work I cannot praise that enough.

If anyone has any questions about the story feel free to ask, though I cannot guarantee a meaningful answer especially in regards to statements of authorial intent, there are things I will not confirm nor deny.

Scene 3

We finally get to see what happened to Coloth and Rich, and there’s a little more on the nature of the books. I am really enjoying the library setting.

And that’s it for the moment, not too much to say but I did say I wasn’t that good at this.

[thienvaldram]

The Book of the Snowstorm – Readthrough/Review Part 8

Framing Story (Scenes 19-21)

Oh so Deadline didn’t cause the Snowstorm. Also nice implication that our world is just part of the Fantastical Realm invented by Coloth. So now the mystery really comes down to who the hell Guy-Who-Is-Not-Auteur really is, why he’s so desperate for a way out and what the Snowstorm itself actually is. It seems I’m getting pretty close to the ending but idk.  

Just Dropping In

Nice short Jenny Everywhere story. (She really does like popping up everywhere doesn’t she). Not too much to say about it tbh, was just fun.

Conspiracy-1263 and the Christmas Conspiracy

Ok so this is my first experience with the Crew of Copper Coloured Cupids (Other than Abstract Tales) and I must say it’s a very fun setting. A whole Tomato themed brainwashing plan and the way the Cupids are named and characterised make for a very whimsical setting. And the way the story encourages you to doubt Conspiracy because of… well, the name, and insist he’s being paranoid about the tomatoes only for it to turn out to be accurate is a nice ‘twist’ so to speak. Enjoyed this one.

Our Bleak Midwinter

Enjoyed this piece. Abby, a child dreaming of a better future, and three Time Lords, bring down a big business. Eos 6 was a nice setting for a story and I really liked Nardeth, Mrellin and Zerlan, they had a fun dynamic. Appreciated the few references to DW proper too like the sonic screwdriver, those were fun. The vague allusions to the Cosmic War and general descriptions of the Lightbringers were also done really well.

[thienvaldram]

Book of the Snowstorm Review Compendium

Part 1 - Foreword, Previously on the Multiverse, Magic Bird of Fire, Dinosaur in the Snow

Part 2 - Neither Warrior Nor Thinker, Jenny Over-There’s Wonderful Life, Claus Rosen Bridge

Part 3 - Still Proceeding, Abstract Tales,

Part 4 - The Ties that Bind, A Buggy Little Holiday, Two Auteurs

Part 5 - Trauma and Tinsel, Love & War,

Part 6 - The Goblin the Witch and the Kitchen Sink, Revelry of the Redacted

Part 7 - The God Who Came For Christmas, Presents, The Cathedral of Winter

Part 8 - Just Dropping In, Conspiracy-1263 and the Christmas Conspiracy, Our Bleak Midwinter

Part 9 - The Gift of the Renegades, The First Noël, Our Finest Gifts We Bring (1-10)

Part 10 - Our Finest Gifts We Bring (The Rest)

[thienvaldram]

The Book of the Snowstorm – Readthrough/Review Part 3

I'd chain post but Idk how and I already did parts 1 and 2 seperately.

Anyway here we go...

Framing Story (Scene 6-8)

So Auteur may actually be here, which is concerning although I suspect it may not be that simple. Like how the snail tries to read something only to realise that it’s just… not relevant. Meanwhile Coloth’s still in the MFS and gets given a story from Starlight Endeavours which is a nice way to segue into that story when it’s so far outside the Third Universe. Also lmao 'The Doctor' reference.

Still Proceeding

If the other SIGNET piece was a character piece on Aoife, this was a full SIGNET story, albeit a short one. Xana for one thing was fun, as were the rest of the cast though I’m not as familiar with them as I would like (I’ll have to look into Night of the Yssgaroth at some point), the simple premise works effectively to justify Perkins’s seeming change of heart at the end and the references to Doctor Omega and Professor X were fun. I can see why this group got a series.

Abstract Tales

A story in a few parts, the framing of a party of conceptual entities in a fictional space is fun and using Remembrance as an excuse to tell smaller stories is a good idea.

Tale the First

So first of all this is about the Toymaker right? Like the Doctor Who Toymaker from Doctor Who, cause its said she vanished from her Workshop which aligns with the Toymaker escaping into the Third Universe in Wild Blue Yonder.

Edit: I have been informed that no this isn't and I'm reading too much into it, whoops.

Second of all, it was fun, simple but fun. I like the imagery of the various worlds and it evokes similar child-like world/genre hopping stories like Nightmare Before Christmas or the Lego Movie.

Tales the Second

Hello Auteur, long-time no see (not really). I must admit I didn’t see the ‘parallel Universes’ thing coming, even in spite of Auteur’s minor comment on the dream mark being a fracture in reality. Fascinating civilisation though, and Auteur’s being as manipulative as ever (he really did try a lot of plans to get back into the Third Universe didn’t he?) Moxx was a fun character too, prone to Auteur’s manipulations but not wholly subservient to them.

Tales the Third

Well now I know where the Mecharons are from, I was thinking they were another offbrand Cybermen created for this story (I see you Cyberons and raise you a Cryptopyre) but no apparently they’re an established thing (Well ok they’re from another story written by Lupan and Aristide but still). Simple story but it works, seems to at least thematically fit with what little I have seen of Jenny Everywhere from the earlier story.

[thienvaldram]

The Book of the Snowstorm – Readthrough/Review Part 2

Framing Story (Scene 4-5)

Grouping these cause I feel like it’s a bit easier. I honestly wasn’t expecting it to get this involved, what with Coloth and Rich actually showing up at the MFS in The Nine-Two-Five Universe. I’m interested to see where it goes.

Neither Warrior Nor Thinker

Nice little piece about the main characters that connects to the framing narration. And gave me a bit more of a rundown on Coloth’s background for someone who’s never read any of his stuff before. Also it was just really sweet.

Jenny Over-There’s Wonderful Life

This was just funny. Not too much else to say, just It’s a Wonderful Life but if the person didn’t even want to die, the angel was incompetent and then they both say screw it and go get coffee. Do like the whole premise of an openly anti-copyright multiverse traveller too (And yeah ik Jenny Over-There isn’t the original one).

The Claus-Rosen Bridge

Ok this one’s chock full of lore, but let’s start with the story. Lotto and Mae are a fun duo from the get go, and I enjoyed their motivation to head to the library. Tying it to the library also directly ties it to the overall setting (And honestly I am growing to like the Library more and more). Gabriel was cool and I really enjoyed their convo with Mae at the end and them learning to trust. Story itself felt like a few short stories in one, the Jesus one, the Father Christmas one and then the Odin one. Auteur was a fun antagonist.

As for the lore, Universe 2 = Spiral Yssgaroth, a mention of Tecteun and the Division as the Mathematical Bureau. Lotto having only one heart to begin with only to have pulled it out and is just… living with no heart.

I do have a few questions lore wise there, like are the non-human animalian forms meant to be previous incarnations, or just Lotto VI (The current one from the story) altered in form externally by the Archons. But to me that kinda speculation adds to the fun of this kind of story. (Also I’m not the only one to allude to non-human Archon incarnations, nice)

Credit to the guts of directly having Jesus Christ appear too. Doctor Who proper’s been too afraid to ever do that.

The Santa stuff’s hilarious and I was not expecting the Church on Ruby Road to get inexplicably cancelled because of Auteur’s meddling.

Fun story, really enjoyed.

[thienvaldram]

The Book of the Snowstorm – Readthrough/Review Part 10 (Final Part)

Our Finest Gifts We Bring

Ok why are people talking about TBotSS in a story in TBotSS?

And yeah ok N-Space is Gerald.

And why is Aristide Lord President of the 507th Homeworld?

Anyway, nice little vignettes and a nice conclusion to the book.

Would do proper overall thoughts but quite frankly I’m very bad at those, I enjoyed the book quite a lot, love the ideas, love the sentiment and love what it represents and I’m proud to be a part of it. Good job to everyone else who worked on it, especially Aristide for editing and releasing it so quickly as well as writing as much content as they did.