@jimmy.page

[remorseful]

Hey everyone. Before we get started, yes, my name matches with @robert.plant. We're brothers. I wanted to get that out of the way.

I just saw the message about who we are, and there's the part about how our powers are explained by some as being from the grace of a god, if you will. We have no real way of proving that. Aside from the ruins, that is, at least from what I've dug up. But the ruins don't have any links through searches, right? If you run an image search, you come up empty. I'm guessing this is leading to some dead ends, so I wanted to posit some questions for us today.

The big one being: why? How often are things lost to history?

Well, for one thing: pretty often. There wasn't as much written record until the mid-medieval period, I'm talking around the 12th century. And then it took humanity in my world until the early 21st century to really start digitizing what already existed. That meant going into the Vatican in a lot of ways, as well as hitting monasteries throughout Europe. And those are the ones that managed to make it. A lot got destroyed in WWI and WWII.

That's with just two World Wars. This world has had three. So, that's factor number one. Three World Wars. Things got destroyed, even if there was a push within humanities to get things digitized.

So, the next question. How did these people in New Amsterdam start worshipping us if there's a whole lot of information lost to history? From what I've gathered, these people got their information from a figure. But he had to get his information from somewhere, right? There are records that tie into what they're saying, things that only ... we could access. Do I have that right?

What I'm getting as is: there might be a private record somewhere out there about us. Not digitized. Hell, maybe even purposely not digitized. Someone didn't want this out there.

Back home, my brother and I—we're a part of a secret society. Or what was once one. We're legacies, late to the game. But we came to find out we had a bunker full of information waiting for us. Lots of that could've helped us. And there were chapters around the world, too. Mainly in Europe, all to keep some things in check.

What I'm trying to say is—I wouldn't be surprised if there was something like that here, but we haven't figured out the right place to look. Maybe that goes without saying, but I wanted to put it out there.

And if you have experience with this stuff, too? Let us know. It could give us some hints on where to get started here.

Thanks.

Comments

@kyna.medina

[evocation]

i've been trying to dig into this shit too, but there's a lot of dead ends
i was mostly researching the stuff we saw in the ruins, you know?
but i think a lot of the stuff i need is either gone or in private collections or something
and there was just a ton that was really vague

[remorseful]

I don't think it's gone. Not if we were purposely set up to follow those leads.

And that happened, right?

@yennefer.vengerberg

[angerberg]

The private collections aren't particularly illuminating either. No one seems to know precisely what they've bought.

@robert.plant

[righteously]

Nobody listen to him I've never met this man before in my life.

But anyway I hit up that freaky cult the last time they were out and about being freaky and culty. They're giving us a pretty hard No on getting in touch with the leader, and none of them seem to know anything about the foundation. Couldn't get a single document, pamphlet, roll of toilet paper, nothing. They apparently learn their whole religion by word of mouth or something.

[remorseful]

I'd argue that that's by design, but they seem pretty dedicated. I mean, they lost their first leader and they're still at it, and still saying this is what they believe? You'd think they'd have some kind of proof. Something to help others buy into what they're selling.

So, what proof did they get?

@torvan.garak

[plainsimple]

While I fear I'm not entirely sold on the whole god-touched possibility, I have sought after difficult-to-obtain information a time or two. A little dabbling, on the side. Often the key to finding it isn't searching places, but people. Whomever hid it wants the information to still be accessible one day, so they'd make certain to tell someone they trusted. Finding someone related to the situation but at a seemingly safe distance, someone who keeps themselves on the outskirts of the conversations and speculation - close enough to observe but far enough to not get caught up in it - may be the place to start.

[remorseful]

You don't need to buy into it to want to know where it comes from. We know there are tangible ruins, and we know what people are saying about us. We just need to know why.

You're talking about this like it's just one person. You think that's really possible?

@nathan.drake / hello nerd alert you rang

[nonscriptum]

spent the better part of my professional career finding things that are lost to history, so it's no real surprise that this place is just like everywhere else.

i don't think you're wrong about the possibility of there being a secret bunker or chamber or underground laboratory somewhere that somebody turned into a makeshift archive. i've located a fair few of them in my world.

i also kind of broke into a private collection early on in my time here, and i think places like that are worth a shot for finding more substantial leads. museums don't exactly seem to be a priority in this world so a little light b&e is more likely to serve us better in going through material that's older than the last century or two.

nerd time

[remorseful]

Yeah, prior to finding our bunker, it was a lot of trawling through urban legends sites and our friend Bobby's book collection. Plus, we had our dad's journal. A lot of personal anecdotal evidence, but nothing as concrete as what had been waiting for us the whole time.

As for the private collection—was it something that seemed to be for guests to view? Or ... you know. Private. I'd like to know the culture of it here.

@castiel.winchester

[unwings]

You're right, Sam, a physical record in a digitized world we be far more secure on virtue of being disconnected alone. Though, seeking that record may be like searching for a needle in a globe-sized haystack.

Lance Sweets' compendium mentions sherpas in Tibet with tattoos akin to followers in New Amsterdam. That may be a place to start. There's mention of previous god-touched having a hand in creating the 'bridges', as well. Perhaps we should investigate the Gates more closely.

[remorseful]

The sherpas at the gates are a good start. We could ask around to see how they were found, and why they were interested in helping us.

@nathan.drake

[nonscriptum]

i helped lance put together that section. was at everest and worked with the sherpas for the duration of the expedition, up until we reached a point they didn't want to cross.

@yennefer.vengerberg

[angerberg]

It could go beyond being purposefully not digitized. Plenty of the damage done during wars to records is with the precise intent of making sure some ideas never see the light of day again. Oral histories can fill that in, but as I understand it, these worshippers haven't been particularly forthcoming with theirs.

It's possible any historical documents simply don't exist anymore.

[ cultural genocide, in effect, except for a group that gives up information like a stone gives up blood. ]

[remorseful]

Not impossible, but how would it come up again? And how would we be pointed in the direction of it? Something tangible exists out there, something that's gotten us to where we need to be at least once before.

It could be oral tradition, but then we're dealing with still needing to find a throughline.

@joe.jones

[malta]

Were it not for the Academy of Gondishapur and the Church of the East many antiquities of the medieval era would be lost to time. It makes sense there would be some record hidden away unless it was devastated by war.

[ adjusts "i was there" glasses ]

[remorseful]

We have to hope if there's tangible evidence in the ruins that existed outside of them before we got there, then there's a solid chance some record exists somewhere.

@lottie.person

[antihistamine]

but if he's your brother why are your names different??

[remorseful]

They're aliases. Our last name is actually Winchester.

@samuel.drake

[withmeinparadise]

there's always traces of something, if you know enough about it to start thinking creatively. which we might not. not even the secret stuff, we gotta know allllll about what their little cult tells these weirdos if we wanna make the jump to what the cult got wrong.

so sure, we gotta go looking for secret rooms and lost records, but we're gonna need more of the now-information, too. doesn't sound like the cultists were all that willing to get buddy-buddy with people last time they tried, but it might be worth trying again. trick is to figure out how to get them to start talking and make sure they don't shut up.

[remorseful]

We need to know the source of the "now" information because there is something to it. But if we haven't been able to dig it out, there's a reason why.

I guess what I'm saying is that the people around this city? Who are worshipping us? They shouldn't be our source, especially if we've come up empty handed there.

@nathan.drake

[nonscriptum]

please tell me you're not gonna try to infiltrate a cult

@thor.odinson

[ofmyth]

in my experience, it is plausible that a group of humans were given powers by a deity, without rhyme or reason-- or with either malevolent or good intentions.

i never did such a thing myself, but i've seen it happen

[ thor gets why no one wants this to be done by a deity. heck, he's very suspicious of it as well. but he knows it could be possible. ]

[remorseful]

Has it ever happened on accident? Or is it always intentional, even if there wasn't a reason?

@stephen.strange, private.

[rehandle]

Regarding home world strongholds of information, the organization I belong to stored all of its mystical relics and texts within four magically protected buildings around the Earth. We weren't known about by global authorities and nobody outside of our circles had any reason to suspect anything like what we kept existed.

A vault or vaults of information reserved for the access of those imbued with power is plausible. As is the possibility that at least some of what we need may be scattered amongst private collections.

[ And that helpfully neutral insight takes him to the cause for his private response... sighs in Stephen Strange ]

If you run into any major hurdles learning things from people who aren't willing to share, I'll be able to help.

private.

[remorseful]

I assume that means you have a way of helping.

[Cutting right to the chase. Because the rest is interesting, but not exactly new.]