Songs of the Saiiban- A Poetic AAR

[Chilango2]

A Strange Batch of Eggs​

To fly to strange worlds and build
New nests, in new soil, in new winds
is to accept you might be killed
Or be forced by circumstance to rebuild
Is to
learn to
accept
The unexpected
The unplanned for
The unpredictable

Your nests might be crushed by a meteor shower
Or primitive species might cause you to lose power
Or you might find yourself eaten by a weird flower
Or the government might lose track of
your entire existence
And forget minor conveniences
Like <ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND>

Or you might live near a dimensional portal
I know! It sounds weird! But it’s actually normal!
It just happens to open to an entire dimension
Of mind-shattering
SCREAMS
Which we will keep open
Of course
SCREAMS
For
SCREAMS
Science.

 

[Chilango2]

So many singers now extinct
Upon their planets all entombed
By thinking mind they all were linked
Is thought itself thus always doomed?

This too, is one of our central questions
the unknown future stretches out
if you have any thoughts we are open to suggestions
for we cannot help but be filled with doubt
Our future is filled with the fragments of the past
will one day we as well be fragments that have passed?
--

One of the things I like about Stellaris in it's current iteration (more or less...I have not bought/playedinstalled Nemesis yet, due to this AAR, but this should nonetheless hold) is that it is now as much a game about an imagined science fiction past as well as a science fiction future. The Galaxy feels a little more "used" and it really gives you a sense that your own species is just part of a unfathomably long galactic history. It's one of the emergent themes of this game, intentional or not, and it's a theme that has really come out to me as I've written this AAR and one I will continue to explore, altough as you can tell from the very first intro poem I was't entirily blind to the idea.

Quick reminder Q2 ACA's are underway and you should head over there and vote.

 

[DensleyBlair]

Study the portal!

What could possibly go wrong…?

 

[Chilango2]

The End of Infinity​

Infinity speaks
It would like us to know that
It’s time to say goodbye

An infinite sphere
Floats gently to its end
Kissing a black hole

So curious an end
No answers, just more questions
Learning is an infinite
series of fractal questions
Every end a beginning

 

[Chilango2]

Study the portal!

What could possibly go wrong…?

From a Saiiban prespective "what could go wrong?" is a legitimate scientific line of inquiry.

 

[DensleyBlair]

From a Saiiban prespective "what could go wrong?" is a legitimate scientific line of inquiry.

Hopefully they don't get any strange urges now that synthetic sapience is one step closer!

 

[Chilango2]

A Dish Best Served Cold​

Don’t look now, or you’ll see
Those stupid mammals taking systems that should have belonged to me
Oh, the death robots have no fleet left? How lucky for you!
If you only knew what trouble I went through when their fleet was new.

Don’t mind me, go ahead.
Take their remaining systems in my stead.
I would do the same, in your, what are they called again “shoes”?
your actions I can hardly condemn
It’s not like I was hoping to come back and finish them


Stupid truce, how can it be?
that my government would let me sit here and let this be?
Go ahead, take them on, it’s not like they have anything left.
I defended us, I destroyed their flocks, and this is how it’s going to be
Others benefit, and my reputation goes unavenged.

 

[Chilango2]

Hopefully they don't get any strange urges now that synthetic sapience is one step closer!

I mean, just not doing anything wouldn't be any fun, would it?

The Saiiban are machinists! Of COURSE they will create synthetics sooner or later.

--
Quick reminder Q2 ACA's are underway and you should head over there and vote.

 

[slothinator]

Machines diverse Machines
So infinite in thought
Untethered by organic genes
Find knowledge gods forgot

While on the Earth so blue and green
A ruler sits in wait
For Saiiban to clean up the scene
So they may fill their plate

 

[DensleyBlair]

That really is an unfortunate display of opportunism from the UNE. Never fun being gazumped like that – but always time for revenge, as you say.

 

[Chilango2]

Old Soldiers Never Die​

Time flows ever on
Till all is dead and gone
the wind passes by
Like death’s lullaby

But old soldiers never die,
Never die, never die,
Old soldiers never die,
They simply fade away.

My tree grows quiet
Ignoring life’s riot
The wind passes it by
in the by and by
Around me wings flutter
Joining each other
It’s their time to fly
They pass me by

But old soldiers never die,
Never die, never die,
Old soldiers never die,
They simply fade away.

When the murders’ wings flew as one
Singing my song,
I imagined a destiny gleaming
I dared to think that some rhyme
might be found in my keening
But now my wings are heavy with the air
Of the song that I’m singing
And I only now dare to ask
To what purpose, what meaning?
When I flew in the air
Thinking my flock might find my song redeeming?
When I flew in the air
was I waking or dreaming?

It’s now time for this old soldier to die,
Time to die, time to die,
It’s now time for this old soldier to die,
Time to fade away.

 

[Chilango2]

Machines diverse Machines
So infinite in thought
Untethered by organic genes
Find knowledge gods forgot

While on the Earth so blue and green
A ruler sits in wait
For Saiiban to clean up the scene
So they may fill their plate

The infinite perversity of the universe
is a reality with which we are becoming quite intimate.

That really is an unfortunate display of opportunism from the UNE. Never fun being gazumped like that – but always time for revenge, as you say.

It was among the most frustrating things I have ever had happen to me in Stellaris, but also hat off the AI for recognizing the opportunity and jumping on it.

As far as the UNE, well, they say the best revenge is living well.

--
Quick reminder Q2 ACA's are underway and you should head over there and vote.

 

[DensleyBlair]

As far as the UNE, well, they say the best revenge is living well.

Sounds like that would be a good song for the Saiiban

Meanwhile, having a 'substance abuser' leader trait is totally crazy. I've never been able to get into playing Stellaris for myself, but still it never fails to amaze me!

 

[Chilango2]

How to work with Humans​

In 2278, the UNE (6) and Saiiban Confederation became stellar neighbors.
Other noteworthy neighbors included:

1. The Onotach Star Adminstration, Xenophobic Isolationists whose one saving grace was believing in pacificism.
2. The Rackuddon Hive, an avian race that existed in a hive mind and the primary source of refugees to the Saiiban as various other races conquered by them fled from being forced to become part of their collective consciousness. As best could be told, this collective consciousness held a belligerent attitude towards the Confederation.,
3. The Phitok Chroniclers, an ancient fallen empire focused on preserving knowledge who mostly saw the Saiiban as below their notice.
4. The Synthoid Continuity, an ancient and inscrutable artificial intelligence with some sort of directive to preserve organic life against some sort of threat
5. The Ix’Idar Swarm, a Hive Mind ravenous swarm of insects that saw all others, including their cousins the Ix’Idar Star collective, as food to be consumed.
6. The aforementioned United Nations of Earth, a species of mammals that held to a system of government where anybody’s input, regardless of their contribution to the sum of scientific knowledge, was considered . The UNE was initially hostile to the Saiiban due to what they referred to as our “authoritarian government” and the UNE had declared the Saiiban their rivals in the 2260’s.

Dangerous galaxy
It kills out there, here take this
Some advice, make friends

Beak of Purple,
sing us your song
How do you like
working with humans?

It is fine
Here are some tips

-
One
Look the human directly in the eye
Do not try to imagine it has feathers
It is a ridiculous effort, not worth a try
Just return its gaze, and tell yourself
I am a face that can be trusted
Even if I cannot “smile”
pretend like you have smooth “skin”
Beneath the feathers, within
This is , in a sense, scientifically true.

Two
Remember, they too, also sing
Although they prefer to “speak”
It is its own sort of song
Even if it relies on a “tongue”
(don’t think about the tongue, don’t think about it)
and not a beak

Three
They too, have nests, and eggs
Although their young are “born” not hatched
In a process almost too messy to believe
Their birbs (the human word is “babies”) are small, like ours
But like them, featherless, flightless
But when hatched, like ours, sing a song
Joining the world with their voice
Joining the melody of their people

Four
Like us, they value science
The learning of things,
The learning of new ignorance
Although their is more individuality
And less community
In their methods
Than ours.

Five
Do not try to prove your
What is the word, oh yes, “humanity”
They are alien, move to a different groove
And you are alien to them, perhaps fascinating
But our priors are not the same
And do not be alarmed
If they try to show affection
With a, well, I suppose you could call it a “mouth”
It is like preening, it shows affection

 

[Chilango2]

Sounds like that would be a good song for the Saiiban

Meanwhile, having a 'substance abuser' leader trait is totally crazy. I've never been able to get into playing Stellaris for myself, but still it never fails to amaze me!

It's one of my favorite traits
I wish more of the Paradox Games had this event, it can add a certain pathos to many things.
--
Yes, I have decided that "birbs" is the official canon name for Saiiban young. Don't @ me, as the kids would say.
--
Quick reminder Q2 ACA's are underway and you should head over there and vote.

 

[Chilango2]

A Measure of Life​

What is the measure of life?
Is it the number of mornings one greets with song?
Is it in how our songs are remembered once we are gone?
Is it the discovery of new songs to join the chorus?
Is it found in the reverence of songs sung by those before us?

What is the measure of death?
Is it in the stillness of what sang, but now is no more?
Is it in the silence of that which does not sing anymore?
Is it in the end of what was and cannot be restored?
Is it in the memory of the song we echo once cold?

What is the measure of living?
Is it found in an egg, filled with potential?
Is it to dispose of the meaningless
and therefore find what’s essential?
Is it in the length of the song which leads us?
Or is in the the notes themselves and what they might teach us?

How can we measure when things live or should die?
Whether to give a score of years to some
or some uncountable, meaningless number to all?
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
But what is best for the needs of the many we wish we knew

Equity mandates that while all are equal
We are not all the same
Even now we acknowledge the unequal
For not all can the name of a scientist claim
Can we then measure life in the contributions of the voices that lead our chorus?
Can we take life itself and say “this is not for all, but just for us?”

What is the measure of life?
Is it in leading or living?
Is it in happiness or giving?
What is the measure of death?
Is it how we are remembered
or in what remains?
What is the measure of living?
Is it excelling or experiencing?
Is it in a longer life, or a life more worth living?
The song continues even as voices reach their end,
Just as voices continue to echo into tomorrow
Even when the ashes of their feathers into the sky we at last send.

 

[Chilango2]

Got delayed by a family member visiting from out of town, and soonish school will start up again and cause updates to slow down again, but nonetheless I will continue to push forward. Thank you to those of you who still read and comment.

This is my final reminder to you to vote in the Q2 ACA's. Voting ends on the 22nd and my informal sense is that it is very close.

 

[slothinator]

That Saiiban would make friends is great
Though humans may be quite bizarre
Until next time we're forced to wait
To see if friendship will fly far

To lengthen life and who we are
Is a decision with much weight
Who can decide our final fate
But those who watch us from afar

 

[Chilango2]

Stay in motion​

Whether it’s a war or scientific discovery
politics as ever resume their discovery
Of how a flock can sing together in unison
Despite disparate voices without unison.
My fellow flock, bear with me
are you aware we are making history?
For a new election is now in session
And for every election we have,
we develop a new chord progression.
Non-stop.

Every eligible scientist all collected in a room,
Each trying to prove we’re the smartest in the room
Each trying to prove we’ll provide our species with more room.
Each one trying to prove the others will be our doom.
Each of us singing like we’re running out of time
Each of us confident we’ll be proven right in time
Each of us singing, hoping the song will be echo through time
In a clash of discordant melodies with a harmony most sublime.
Non-stop

Objects in motion, tend to stay in motion,
And every party that forms, has its own notions
Juggling an oligarchy isn’t easy, every party has its price
And every new interest thinks highly of their advice.
Stranger still, new songs join us, some without beaks
And so the flock’s song complicates for every new voice that speaks
But politics is a system without inertia,
Changes happen ceaselessly even if controversial
You can try to change the momentum and the direction with time
But you cannot revert the changes even if it's not quite true you can’t bend time
Change moves ever forward in whatever direction it can
Like the winds, never stopping, ever since time began
Non-Stop

And so now Scientist Beak of Ivory would like to sing
And suggests we see what these new voices will bring
Let us become a nation welcoming of immigrants?
Sure, why not, it’s worth the experiment.
Outlaw slavery? Sure, it’s only a formality
No one here actually owns people as property,
Ban the purging of people? Why not, growth keeps us out of poverty
Willy nilly, without meaning, we change the fundamentals of a government
And without meaning to we form an entire new covenant.
The changes don’t stop, they just keep on changing
What’s remaining, rearranging, with ideas ever exchanging
Non-stop


Our song does not stop,
(History listens to our song)
Let these new voices sing,
(for tomorrow will always arrive)
The Saiiban must always sing,
(we’re struggling to survive)
Let these new voices sing,
(it will keep us alive!)
Let these new voices sing!
Non-stop.

 

[Chilango2]

That Saiiban would make friends is great
Though humans may be quite bizarre
Until next time we're forced to wait
To see if friendship will fly far

To lengthen life and who we are
Is a decision with much weight
Who can decide our final fate
But those who watch us from afar

Giving it due thought
we have decided that humans
are less weird than things
which would like to eat us

-

And who watches?
The only eyes we see are those of the past
dead, but speaking, saying
"we lived, and are remembered by you,
but who will remember you?"

-
Thanks again to those who voted for this AAR for the ACA's, I deeply appreciate it.

As I have mentioned before, I am a teacher. The beginning of the school year is upon us and has already slowed down the pace of updates, so expect more intermittent posting. I'm hoping to update at least every two weeks, and ambitiously would like to do once a week, but we'll see how it goes.