Songs of the Saiiban- A Poetic AAR

[Chilango2]

Start Over Again​

A circular pattern
Start, middle, start
A circular pattern
Start, middle, start

A circular pattern,
Start: This egg is laid
Middle: begins to crack
Start: Back to the start

A circular pattern
Start: This is not natural
Middle: But what is natural?
Start: The universe around us laughs,
The egg of understanding cracks, but never hatches

Start: Interrupt the pattern
by observing
Existing
End: Measure the waveform: it collapses, resolves
The quantums decide where to go

End: We wish to know, to understand
How did this start, to what end?
These beings, trapped in a cycle of time
Do we have the right to observe, measure,
Break the cycle?

But by existing, do we not already do so?
To not observe, to disengage, is to die.
Life lies in the observations.

And so we observe,
Break the cycle,
To give a new start
And then, they crack the egg
And are born and die in the same
Mushroom cloud
Pushed out by us into their doom
Broken out of a cycle of life,
The remnants of their planet, still
Waiting to start anew.
Start again?

 

[Chilango2]

I feel compelled to apologize for the lack of updates, but to say the last month was...busy.. would be an understatement.
Between the last few weeks of school, shifting into a different teaching job, and a bunch of other things..

The dust has I hope settled and I hope to pick up the pace of updates over July to advance the AAR as far as I can over the summer.

Thanks for your patience, and thanks if you still follow and read.

 

[DensleyBlair]

That’s a particularly hellish time loop to be stuck in!

It feels perverse to suggest that the lizards may have been grateful for the explosion finally coming, but equally all the time-loop films I’ve seen lead me to suspect they may not have minded too much…

 

[Qorten]

I haven't seen that anomaly before, ever. Might be something the devs put in over the last year or so, because that is how long it's been since I played Stellaris. Nice though.

 

[Chilango2]

A Chorus is Many Voices​

Sing!
A new song,
A new voice,
A different egg
A different path

Some would sing
That this song was inevitable
That it was just a matter of time
From the moment our song
Rose into the void
And met other songs
Other voices,
Singing into the void,
Filling the silence of space
Making the galaxy
A chaotic chorus
Until their voices joined ours
To find a new harmony

Some would sing
Of the dangers
Of the alien
Of the unknown
Fearing strange voices
Singing strange songs
Believing a new harmony
An impossibility
After all,
How can one form
A chorus from voices
So discordantly dissimilar?

We sing,
Saiiban,
Into an imagined future
from a constructed past
Our voices rise up
Categorizing death and destruction and despair
And hope and happiness and harmony
We sing into space
Constructing the past
Out of the echoes of dead singers
We sing into space
Imagining a new future
Every bit of research
Unlocking dreams and nightmares
of we which we sang

We sing,
knowing that
Every song, every singer
Is a choice
Neither destiny nor doom
But development
Of the unfolding song
That is our story

We sing
Our scientific experiments
Never knowing, never certain
Where they might lead
Every theory and hypothesis
An imagined leap into the undiscovered country
Of the future

And so we choose to sing
a new chorus into being
Joined by new singers
Singing new songs
To refuse would be to refuse
an experiment, an exploration
Into what might be

Sing!

 

[Chilango2]

That’s a particularly hellish time loop to be stuck in!

It feels perverse to suggest that the lizards may have been grateful for the explosion finally coming, but equally all the time-loop films I’ve seen lead me to suspect they may not have minded too much…

Of course, they aren't *aware* they are in a time loop, but from the current developing Saiiban perspective, what they were stuck in was unnatural: so it was correct to break them out of it even if it resulted in their doom.

I haven't seen that anomaly before, ever. Might be something the devs put in over the last year or so, because that is how long it's been since I played Stellaris. Nice though.

I've run into it before (this is the first time I think I've gotten the "blow up the planet" outcome, but its definitely one of the newer and more interesting anomalies.

 

[Chilango2]

Revelations​

We flew upon the winds
That had brought us here
Crossing a distance
Unimaginable to the past
Across a future more strange
Than any we had sang about

A future of wonder, of terror
Of dead planets, talking plants
Of robots programmed for death
And ancient confused computers
Seeking to preserve life

And across that distance
In time, in space, in memory
We find ourselves again.

Our fleets,
mightier than any we imagined
(and yet, we are unsure of their strength)
Come to finish
The first thing they started
Building a temple of unity
Out of our new song, our new singers
And turning a song
Sung by familiar singers
those of our own flock
Who turned a different way
Into a memory

We admire the tenacity
Of our fallen, foolish brethren,
Singing their song of faith
Beyond all reason
Amidst the dark corners of the galaxy
Their song, like ours
Reaching across generations
Such that where we started
Is but an echo of here, their end.

But here, at the end,
We sing, we see
The strength of our song
The weakness of theirs
Ours has grown in wonder,
In complexity
Adapting new keys, new harmonies
New voices,
Growing, as we have grown
Into our confusing chaotic confederation

When we finally find them
Their song has not changed
And some might say
That this a strength
To preserve one song
Unchanged across generations

But we know, we have learned
All changes,
Even time itself bends
Into manifold shapes
As we progress
To stop change
Is to die
And so, at long last,
We kill them.

And resume our evolving song

 

[Idhrendur]

Saiiban long sundered
Cultish and cursed
Fought they with fury
Longing to lead

Quick was the combat
Captured the cult
Lost was the leader
Doomed he to death

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

I've been reading through my Tolkien collection and realized I really like alliterative verse. Thanks for the opportunity to try to write a little

 

[DensleyBlair]

Enjoyed the look in at some of the refugees arriving in the Saiiban lands! Great to see that the nest is big enough for all comers

 

[Chilango2]

In Flames​

Stars
Out there in the darkness
From afar look so clear
Glowing in the night
Their course seems so certain
Blazes of order
Filling the universe with light
Filling the universe with life

Stars,
Out there in the darkness
Our constant companions
Holding their course and their aim
Their orderly dance
Announcing the passage of seasons
Silently guarding the night
Silently guiding our flight.

And yet
Once out here we find
Once out here in Space
Out here in the darkness,
Nothing is clear
Nothing is the same

Out here we find
Space messy with meaning
With the wreckage of memory
Of others gone by
Out here we find
Our once clear stars burning
The certainty of knowing
Burning along with the remnants
Of others gone by

Stars,
With stories scarce to be counted
Their light shining into the darkness
Burning knowledge away
Turning what we know into flame

Stars,
Let us then
sing your uncertainty
With stuttering voices
Embracing the dark.
We fly,
out into the darkness
Fallen from Confidence
Fallen from our conviction
That answers we’ll face
Instead,
We embrace the burning uncertainty
Knowing our knowledge
Will be burned
in flames

 

[Chilango2]

Saiiban long sundered
Cultish and cursed
Fought they with fury
Longing to lead

Quick was the combat
Captured the cult
Lost was the leader
Doomed he to death

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

I've been reading through my Tolkien collection and realized I really like alliterative verse. Thanks for the opportunity to try to write a little

When finally the end came
almost anticlimatic
a dull, distant death.

---
Always happy to give people the opportunity to write more poetry. A few of the updates in this very AAR have been influenced by Tolkien (in fact, one of the past Cult of Unity ones did), so it's only appropriate.

Enjoyed the look in at some of the refugees arriving in the Saiiban lands! Great to see that the nest is big enough for all comers

When this started happening, it was genuinely surprising to me since I had the default "citizens only" refugee policy, but then I realized that my default rights were set to citizen.
In either case, the refugees have only started, really.

--
In other news, consider this my gentle reminder that the Q2 ACA's are underway and you should head over there and vote.

 

[Cryptotundra]

Of course, they aren't *aware* they are in a time loop, but from the current developing Saiiban perspective, what they were stuck in was unnatural: so it was correct to break them out of it even if it resulted in their doom.


I've run into it before (this is the first time I think I've gotten the "blow up the planet" outcome, but its definitely one of the newer and more interesting anomalies.

I think this is the anomaly that spawns the prikki-ti empire.

 

[Chilango2]

Revolutions

Wherever you go, Gravity is inescapable
Near or far, its power is unmistakable
Wherever you find either planets and stars
They grab hold of things and say “let’s make it ours”
And so we swing around our various gravity wells
Moving in constant revolution splitting off like cells
Here some evolution, there a mutation, add a revolution

Into this constant dance of biology and sociology
We measure the changes and try to create a chronology
But history is in the constant state of gradual revision
Both future and past change with every decision
Add to this our proclivity to try any experiment
And any attempt to make sense is bound to cause merriment
Nevermind, progress is measured by confusion’s diffusion

Take for instance the latest unforeseen news
from our experiment in xenosociology
When we helped our gaseous friends found a new colony
Add a couple of revolutions of a gas giant to our chronology
And a political revolution marking a new ideology.

And now their colony asks
if we will help them spread their revolution
And the homeworld also asks
that we help them to their preferred solution
But we choose to refuse
For now a better experiment forms
we have a control group
And a variation on its form
And so let this revolution stew
We will observe and record
Each revolution around its star
That it survives and evolves

 

[Chilango2]

I think this is the anomaly that spawns the prikki-ti empire.

Now that you mention it, I believe you are correct.
Well, they spawned this time as well, and then very quickly despawned.

-
Consider this another gentle reminder that the Q2 ACA's are underway and you should head over there and vote.

 

[Chilango2]

Welcome to the Jungle​

Welcome to the Jungle, where nothing is the same
Out here there are zero rules, sweetie, other than survive
One power eats another, honey, without any shame
So do whatever you need to, darling, you gotta stay alive.
You better punch fast and hit hard, lovely, if you wanna grow
And your better look scary, cutie, if stars you wanna hold
It’s pure anarchy out there, baby, no one is gonna say no
If they come to eat you, cupcake, so you gotta be big and bold
Things out there will carve you up, pumpkin, without alibi
They don’t even need it, sugar, out here they ain’t no law,
they’ll consume you alive, screaming, no one will wonder why
Your defenses better be ready, dinner, better have no flaw
Cause it’s a jungle out here, pure and simple, with but one rule
A jungle out here, kill, thrive, or die, a pure survival school.

 

[DensleyBlair]

What an action packed few updates. Fourth dimensions… galactic revolution… endless trouble in the neighbourhood… It’s all going on for the Saiiban, that’s for sure. Very enjoyable to read.

 

[slothinator]

I've finally managed to catch up ad the Saiiban's journey is marvelous as always!
Space proves to be full of wonders and terrors but Saiiban's sweet song shows space still sublime.

 

[Chilango2]

Time to fly​

It was our time to go, time has gone
Remember the past, pass it by
It’s was our time to fly

Dig deep into what was, dig up what’s gone,
Remember our lives, pass them by
It was our time to die.

Learn our lives, to live is to die,
Remember yourself, pass on by
It’s your time to fly

Fly, fly away,
Into the sun, into the sky
Fly, fly away
Remember the past, remember our lives
In our time passed by.

Killed by ice or by fire,
To live is to die, we passed on by
Killed in sleep, or killed like sheep
Remember the past, pass on by,
Whether you rage or calmly accept your fate
To live is to die, you’ll pass on by.
It’s time to fly away.

Fly, fly away,
Into the fire, into the sun,
Fly, fly away
Fly into the past as you pass on by,
Time to fly away.

 

[Chilango2]

What an action packed few updates. Fourth dimensions… galactic revolution… endless trouble in the neighbourhood… It’s all going on for the Saiiban, that’s for sure. Very enjoyable to read.

Yep, we're out of the early game and things are getting interesting. Just wait, more trouble is brewing yet.

I've finally managed to catch up ad the Saiiban's journey is marvelous as always!
Space proves to be full of wonders and terrors but Saiiban's sweet song shows space still sublime.

Glad you've enjoyed catching up.

---
Consider this another gentle reminder that the Q2 ACA's are underway and you should head over there and vote.

 

[slothinator]

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