Not much going on in this thread, obviously, but I'm in a phase of life right now where I'm going to (occasionally) fire up Unreal/UT Single player again for a while (I want to go through the original campaign again, and there are a lot of custom user SP maps I never played). As I was browsing this fine Friday evening, deciding which mods I might want to consider, I came across the Nali Chronicles mod and SP campaign (see http://unrealarchives.com/nali-chronicles/ ) . Dunno if anyone here plays it, but on its face it makes no sense. The framework is this: hundreds of years before Prisoner 849 and the subsequent Skaarj-human wars, the Skaarj had attempted a previous invasion. At the time, however, the Nali had magic, and with it they managed to throw the Skaarj off their planet so convincingly that it took the lizards centuries to get up enough confidence to come back for a second try. In Nali Chronicles, you play as one of those magic-using Nali during that previous invasion.
Two major logical problems:
1. Despite Nali mysticism and levitation, Unreal 1 (and UT, where a Nali fights in the Tournament IIRC, or at least there's a mod to allow one to do that) is a tech universe, not a fantasy milieu. That means straight-up magic is out.
2. Even disregarding point 1, there remains a serious problem: if Nali magic was so great back then, why couldn't it do the same job when the Skaarj came back for another go? Cuz obviously it didn't.
I've not yet played Nali Chron, but I may, and I can't suspend disbelief unless I have a decent reason for so doing. Blatant illogic won't allow me to. So just for fun I came up with a rationale that resolves these issues. (Hope any NC fans out there don't take too much offense
The following has been excerpted from a scholarly m-book ("mental book"--the material goes straight into your cerebral cortex) which was published shortly after the conclusion of the Skaarj-human wars:
Two major logical problems:
1. Despite Nali mysticism and levitation, Unreal 1 (and UT, where a Nali fights in the Tournament IIRC, or at least there's a mod to allow one to do that) is a tech universe, not a fantasy milieu. That means straight-up magic is out.
2. Even disregarding point 1, there remains a serious problem: if Nali magic was so great back then, why couldn't it do the same job when the Skaarj came back for another go? Cuz obviously it didn't.
I've not yet played Nali Chron, but I may, and I can't suspend disbelief unless I have a decent reason for so doing. Blatant illogic won't allow me to. So just for fun I came up with a rationale that resolves these issues. (Hope any NC fans out there don't take too much offense
The following has been excerpted from a scholarly m-book ("mental book"--the material goes straight into your cerebral cortex) which was published shortly after the conclusion of the Skaarj-human wars:"The Nali of the First Skaarj Invasion could meet their spacefaring enemies with only primitive technology. But they confronted the star-travelers as equals on the battlefield with esper skills channeled by ritual and mental control, an ensemble of abilities which, thousands of light-years away on Terra at that time, would have been called "magic". Xenobiologists have since theorized that the Nali have some kind of genetic ability to interact with Na Pali's unique electromagnetic field. Whatever their basic source, however, these skills require a lifetime of dedication, dietary deprivation, and focused training which never attracted a majority of the Nali population. As Nali technology itself advanced and mechanical contrivances grew more commonplace--even if not at a level of sophistication we might consider a mark of significant progress--later generations saw a gradual but eventually near-complete abandonment of the ancient pursuits of self-cultivation. The great monasteries, home to thousands of students across the continent during their heyday, were deserted by both donors and devotees. Even the most prestigious of these institutions, the monastery attached to the Temple of Vandora, was eventually forced to close its doors. A century later, when the Skaarj finally returned (six years before the Vortex Rikers brought Prisoner 849 to Na Pali), only a few shamans and priests still cultivated the traditional disciplines, and even then only to the best of what must unfortunately be described as declining abilities. Many of the most difficult--and therefore most powerful--of the ancient techniques had been wholly forgotten. Even had there been sufficient time to train a new generation in the old ways so as to resist the invaders, the effort would therefore have been largely vain. The best that the remaining Nali mystics of the second invasion could do was to shield from Skaarj detection vital supplies for the Nali resistance and their human allies.
When we visit Na Pali today we see a world decimated by war, its people impoverished and dependent upon Terra for protection. We must remember that the power of the great Nali masters had once been capable of flinging off their homeworld a civilization far more warlike and technologically advanced than their own..."
--LECTURER MANJEL BEDUE, XENOHISTORY DIVISION OF THE UNITED EARTH UNIVERSITY, A HISTORY OF SKAARJ EXPANSION (SECTION 4.2.3)
When we visit Na Pali today we see a world decimated by war, its people impoverished and dependent upon Terra for protection. We must remember that the power of the great Nali masters had once been capable of flinging off their homeworld a civilization far more warlike and technologically advanced than their own..."
--LECTURER MANJEL BEDUE, XENOHISTORY DIVISION OF THE UNITED EARTH UNIVERSITY, A HISTORY OF SKAARJ EXPANSION (SECTION 4.2.3)
