#engines of empire

[deadiez]

books I read in april 2024

[notyoujamie]

Why was the Rani dressed like you? Perhaps she's fashion conscious. She was in disguise. Practising another one of her talents.

THE RANI COSPLAYING THE DOCTOR'S COMPANIONS SINCE 1987

[ongoingexperiment]

old man yaoi

[uncleclaudius]

Part of the ancient Roman road to Gaul near the Italian town of Donnas in Aosta Valley has been carved into the rock, bearing a testament to the Roman engineering capabilities. It was constructed during the time of Augustus.

[thesilicontribesman]

Roman Bronze Double-Action Water-Pump, Probably 3rd Century CE From Bolsena, Italy, The British Museum, London

This pump had two pistons (a), which were raised and lowered by a rocking-beam (b). The pistons were housed in two cylinders (c). At the bottom of each cylinder was a non-return valve (d).

When one of the pistons was raised, the valve was pushed open and the water rose inside the cylinder. When the piston reached its highest point the valve closed, trapping the water inside the cylinder.

On its downward stroke, the piston forced the water out through a side pipe (e). It then passed through a second valve (f) into the central discharge pipe (g), where it drained away.

[cracklewink]

I know its not canon but I always liked the idea that Flurry Heart grew up to be a normal pony. Never went on any princess-title-earning quest, no grand magical destiny, no real royal responsibilities. Just a normal pony (who happens to be an alicorn) free to enjoy life with her friends and hobbies

[alphamecha-mkii]

Star Wars: Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels - Dash Rendar's Modified Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-2400 Light Freighter "Outrider"

[imogenkol]

— FRACTURES

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[whimsicaltwine]

he's everything to me

[queer-omens-in-the-archives]

pretender

Relationship: Mello/Near Rating: M Chapters: 1/1 Words: 720 Series: sweet atonement (prequel that also works as a standalone)

pretender (noun) - One who simulates, pretends, or feigns. - A claimant to the throne or to the office of ruler (usually without just title). - A person who professes beliefs and opinions that they do not hold in order to conceal their real feelings or motives. With Mello gone I'm not I'm not gone I'm not on the wind, Near is the best option. The only option. L will be gone if he desists and he is nothing if not conscious of his duty. The shape of his life is all wrong and there is nothing he can do to change it; he can only change himself.

Warnings: Self-Harm Tags: Post-Canon, Dissociation, Depersonalization, Self-Dehumanization, Grief/Mourning, Near is not coping with being L on his own, Hallucinations, (or ghosts. Unclear.), Multiplicity/Plurality, Near's Mello Introject, (very quietly and subtly in this one but he is there)

[read on AO3]

[hummingjay]

Hey Jay!! I've been wondering about something and since you do a lot of military stuff there's a possibility that you might have an answer for it.

Do you have any thoughts/headcanons about The Empire? Like, on looks or how they operate?

SOSAA HAIIIIIII

Okay so I figure since the Eusan Nation is based off East Germany, I think the Eusan Empire would be based off West Germany.

That means, instead of a socialist dystopia, it’d be closer to a democratic dystopia. While west germany did Germany did in fact emphasize more rights to personal privacy with less censorship, plus there was less chance of you getting arrested for thought crimes- keep in mind it’s still a surveillance state. Especially during the Cold War and threats from terrorism. - akin to the war between the nation and empire now.

We can work with what we know from the game- which isn’t an awful lot given that the nation propaganda isn’t trustworthy. We do know that they have at least a semi-capable fleet to blockade Venita. We’re assuming it is a military superpower, or it was before the revolution.

we also know that their leader is akin to a goddess who is powerful enough to literally create a race of slave humanoids. (Take from this that the empire is comfortable with slavery. You can’t make a race of servants without some form of a- slavery and b- biological social castes; (they made a race specifically for servitude. Come on)). because their leader is such a deity, we can also assume that the culture, like the nation does, almost worships bioresonant entities. Religion being prominent is likely. We also know it’s an empire. Rule is likely passed down to an heir.

For the military, we can assume that there was a mandatory service period for gestalts. We can also assume, since they have a decent fleet, they also have a decent armada of tanks, ITVs, and other ground vehicles, plus an Air Force.

for replikas, we can accurately assume they have similar ones to the nation, fulfilling specific roles- especially when a gestalt shouldn’t be risked (think of the nation sending those poor Aras to irradiated areas- the empire likely does the same)

Domestic and security units probably make up the majority- like Eules, Aras, stars, etc. military units likely exist too. Looking at the armor from that lady from that one book (assuming that’s the empress here) the color scheme would be red and black- kinda like the nations except less white? Not sure though. Height would vary a lot too, with taller ones generally having more power.

the question is: are replikas (if that’s what the empire even calls them) higher in rank than gestalts? We don’t know. We hardly know this about the nation! The only frame of reference is a literal reeducation center- of course there’s no respect for the prisoners gestalts there. So really we have no clue of an hierarchy. I think that logically, since replikas are most predominantly servants, they’d have less respect. But that’s just an assumption.

now the real question.

Do imperial replikas have feet?

I don’t think so. First, nation replikas are descendants from imperial ones. Chances are nothing really changed along the way. Secondly, (and more importantly) the footlessness of signalis was a design choice more so than anything else. It’ll probably stay consistent.

[lizzybeeee]

I love the Descent DLC for a lot of reasons, but one of the most memorable parts for me was how they recontextualized the dwarven belief that you would 'fall into the sky!' with the reveal of the Titans.

Thousands upon thousands of years resulted in the phrase losing it’s true meaning, recontextualised to instead refer to the surface of Thedas because they lost the knowledge of what it was talking about. Yet this phrase still endured throughout the ages.

You meet plenty of dwarves in Dragon Age who talk about the importance of reclaiming what they lost -> the Aeducan origin story begins with an expedition to an old thaig, Brosca suffers the caste system that venerates the importance of past ancestors actions, we see characters like Branka commit/allow horrific acts in the pursuit of this...

Even Bartrand, who spent the majority of his life on the surface, felt that pull. Varric has a story about breaking a plate that was brought to the surface with them and how, to Bartrand, that plate was the entire city of Orzammar. So many dwarven characters are reaching for something lost to them...

You walk into the titan (though you don't know this at the time) and you're met with an entire world in there. There's light, fauna, flora, architecture, clouds -> you are in the clouds -> you are in the sky!

The dwarves had an entirely different way of life! How does this all work? Who knows! What is in the booty of a Titan???

And the entire time they've had one small link to the far distant past through the belief that they would ‘fall into the sky’! Which is deeply ironic and tragic in that something so tied to their way of life, under the surface, became synonymous with the surface.

I still remember how excited/awed I was when I realized what that phrase was referring to! You heard it all the time in DAO – even Varric joked about how Bartrand believed it in DA2.

A phrase that was a joke to those on the surface was revealed to be a flicker of memory of what once was. Amazing!

Maybe it was once a small, chiding reminder for dwarven children when walking around in a titan. Maybe it was a joke for the guards/defenders of the titan like the Sha-Brytol? Maybe a dwarf wandered down so far below that they saw all this - making their way back to Orzammar with their account becoming legend. Who knows! But I love it so much <3

[swtechspecs]

Kuat Systems Engineering CloakShape Starfighter

Source: The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (Del Rey, 1996)

[machiavelli]

Also if Morgan Elsbeth, who I highly doubt took STEM classes on Dathomir, can be a space engineer just because “duh logic” then nasa has to hire me.

[ordinum]

without taking any new pictures, post your oc as a...

romanceable npc

quest giver

final boss

[redrcs]

Relic of empire.

Iguana Gold Mine, Croydon.

On my travels