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[Frumple]

... would... would that even work? I mean, you kinda' need some degree of cooperation and, well. Half that list probably wants to kill and/or eat and/or steal children from the other half. I guess you could base it on a naturalized slave group. One of those goblin/kobold nations that seem to have nearly as much <other race> as their own.

Alternately, you'd have a very interesting Sburb session. You'd have a lot of cultural animosity to work through/around. And cannibal elves. I mean, the trolls had enough trouble and for all they're from a notably inter-antagonistic species, they're still mostly the same one and generally fairly able to cooperate without killing each other. DF races, well. Beyond being several different ones, they tend to kinda' hate each other and actively try to murder each other. DF's a world where diplomacy occasionally goes, "You chopped down trees, now we're going to kill and eat your children." And that's, like. The extent of diplomacy. Most everyone else just kinda' walks in and starts the slaughter.

@ FD: Sounds like an interesting thing to run with. I'd probably read it once it got over 60k-ish words, heh. Main immediate, minor-ish, thought on reading your blurb was "How are you working with Irukuku?" She's, well. She has a human form, but from what I recall for all that she's physically mature in human form, she's kinda' mentally... not. Smart, but quite young.* Also not human, for all that she has a human form, which as per Green Sun Illuminates, ferex, is a definite thing-you-can-play-with.

* Most of cast is, actually, thinking on it. Last ZnT fic I read that included bits on age gaps and romance was American Geek in Halkeginia, iirc. Though you may be aiming for less romance more bookmance or something, which would be fine. But still, beyond the magical brand, why would a probably-notably-older (since the chances of a 16-18 year old managing to bugger about with Elder Scrolls diplomacy and whatnot is... possible but unlikely?) Dovahkin stick around at all?

[Flying Dice]

Aha, no, not romantic in that case. Implication was closer to familial.

Dovahkin has motivation to stick around at first because:

1. He needs to learn the language and buff up on local lore. No instant plot-device accidental translation spell, because he won't be pissing Louise off with incessant chatter.

2. The need to work out the complexities of political, social, and magical norms so that he doesn't end up screwing himself. He's summoned to a school, the school has a big library.

3. Once he realizes that the summoning a) wasn't related in any way to Conjuration or the Dovah-summoning Thu'um, and b) has taken him outside of Mundus, he's got motivation to stick around to study the cause of it, both because it's likely his best chance of finding a way back and because anything with enough power to pull someone from Mundus into another material dimension is probably going to be related in some way to the underlying nature of the universe as the scholars of Nirn know it.

4. Once the hints about Louise being a Void mage start coming, that's a red flag. The guy is first and foremost seeking knowledge, beyond even his goals in the Empire. If he has a pre-existing relationship with a mortal who could potentially be carrying a shard of the power of the deity/entity that carved a new plane of existence out of the Void, there's no way in hell he's abandoning that.

Remember, the path he's trying to follow to achieve CHIM is an investigation into the respective natures of the Night Mother, Sithis (who is more-or-less considered to be Padomay, one of the two brothers born of the Void; Sithis is also said to send the souls he claims to the Void), and Lorkhan, who is considered to be the son of Padomay, and who is credited with both realizing CHIM and orchestrating the creation of Mundus. To the Dovahkin's mind, a direct link to Void could lead him to a greater understanding of the true nature of Sithis, and from there the same sort of understanding of Lorkhan, which might provide insight into achieving CHIM. As I said, the man realizes that it's almost certainly futile, but it's still a worthy goal.

That aside, according to his eventual hypothesis that Halkegenia is a new material plane carved from the Void and that Louise (and other Void mages) are somehow related to the creator of it, then that power is likely the best thing he'll find to a ticket back to Mundus.


So in short, he sticks around at first because he needs information, in the middle run because he has a study-buddy and a vast library of local lore (not to mention a young Dovah--both in the sense of it being an opportunity to instruct a dragon younger than himself who isn't beholden to Alduin, and because she represents a tangible link to Mundus, at least according to his assumption that Rhyme dragons are kin to Akatosh), and in the long run both because of a twofold opportunity to pursue his greatest ambition as well as a chance of returning to Mundus and his various lesser goals.

There may also be hints of an intent to try and permanently bridge Halkegenia and Mundus, because hey, he's been helping them deal with their problems, and his own homeland just so happens to have trouble with golden-haired pointy-eared fuckers with abnormal magical aptitude, and guess who the Brimiric peoples hate...

[Frumple]

Among the worst of things is hitting a title and then not really being sure how to run with it.

Still.

"Louise de la Valliere and the Littlest Diablo."

Because I'm not sure what exactly would happen if Louise summoned a 6-inch tall Lord of Terror, but I imagine it would be something wonderful.

[Hanslanda]

After playing Cortex Command with the WH40K mod and the UNSC mod, I want to see an army of the UNSC variety taking on a single company of Space Marines, preferably the pre-Heresy Luna Wolves (Led by Mothafuckin' Garviel Loken), but I guess I could accept some Salamanders, Blood Angels, or Space Wolves.

The layout?

The battle is entirely a ground battle. The UNSC has no supporting vessels in orbit, and no flying vehicles, nor do the Space Marines. The UNSC has an army of basic footsoldiers. Legions of them. Let's be generous and say 10-1 odds. They also have 100 ODSTs and 10 Spartan-IIs, plus all the assorted and varied weapons of the UNSC and any captured Covenant weapons you care to include in your Headcanon (Fuel Rod Headcannon). The Space Marines have a full company, 100 Marines. It's a battle company, so they have a couple tanks, a few APCs, maybe a tracked gun or two, and a varied mixture of squad types. The UNSC has an emplaced fortress, and the Space Marines are assaulting it, attempting to decapitate Command and Control.

[Flying Dice]

Hm, that's an interesting question. It'd really depend on two things: how much heavy material support the UNSC has, and what we're qualifying the SMs and Spartan-IIs as. For fairness I think we can put the latter on roughly equivalent spots in their mythos, whatever level that happens to be (saying that, for example, if we go with most badass OP interpretation of one, we do the same with the other).

That aside, however, there are two main points to address: the UNSC anti-material rifles and Scorpion tanks. It's pretty safe to assume that a lot of the conventional UNSC stuff is just plain cannonfodder. However, the SRS 99-# variants are pretty impressive. They fire 14.5x114mm AP fin-stabilized sabot rounds, with a muzzle velocity of 1450m/s and maximum range of around 2300m. It's never specified, but it's probably safe to assume that the rounds are depleted uranium/tungsten/something.

The in-game depiction is somewhat odd, considering that it basically portrays an anti-tank/anti-vehicle weapon in an exclusively anti-personnel role, but whatever--from what we do see, it can overpenetrate an energy shield and power armor multiple times with the same bullet.

If the UNSC has even a few dozen marksmen armed with those, and they're able to begin engaging the Marines from their maximum range, I'm tempted to say that the Marine losses would be sufficient for them to not entirely wipe the UNSC. If they've got a CREEEEEEED!-tier commander who can get them into close range without being spotted, it's a whole 'nother ballgame. Same deal with the Scorpions: they've got excellent direct-fire capabilities at long range, but things would go sour if the 40K side got close before the fighting started. The Spartans themselves, being Spartan-IIs, are pretty badass. I'd expect them to be able to go one-on-one with non-legendary Marines in full armor, but their really big thing is their integration with their conventional troops as a force multiplier. Energy shields also mean that they can drag out fights with hit-and-run attacks; they can take a shot or three on their shields, SMs have to take it on the armor.

So in short it depends largely on the terrain. If the UNSC can initiate from a kilometer or two away, they win. If the Space Marines can start the fight within 250m or so, they'll probably either win or inflict overwhelming losses, assuming they can breach the fortress. If the fortress holds up for more than a couple minutes, UNSC fire support wins the day again. UNSC personal weapons are mostly shit, Covie personal weapons are worse.

That doesn't account for the possibility of the UNSC having a couple captured Fuel Rod Wraiths. Those bastards would tear through anything and everything if they didn't all die right off the bat. I imagine that a squad of Ghosts could also be annoying with drivers good enough to use their speed to avoid taking fire; the SMs don't have much in the way of hitscan-style weapons.

But yes, terrain and the amount of time that the UNSC can drag the fight out seem like the primary factors here. The UNSC is squishy but has good support weapons; the Space Marines are tough bastards that can take a lot, but don't have a great area of influence, given that they're mostly armed with melee weapons, bolters, and a few heavy weapons, plus their handful of vehicles.

[Sirus]

I don't see UNSC weapons doing any damage to 40k Marines, with the possible exception of heavy weapons. Remember that these are guys who can wade through incoming fire that is heavy by 40k standards, let alone most other sci-fi. If an energy weapon capable of blowing limbs off isn't going to do more than smudge the paintwork a little, and equivalent-power slugs from the same setting will just ping off, then what are UNSC bullets going to do? And let's not get into how one-sided melee combat will be.

The alien weapons on the other hand are plasma-based, and if we assume they are on the same level as 40k plasma weapons (maybe the Tau versions - safer but lower-powered) can be an actual threat to the Marines. If they're actually worse, then no worries for the Marines. Plasma sword would be decently worrying, but nobody other than a SPARTAN would last long enough to use one.

Bolters aren't fancy, but let's not forget that they shoot armor-piercing explosive rounds by default. Anything lighter than the heaviest tank in the UNSC arsenal would be shredded quickly, and I'm not sure how long even a SPARTAN shield would last against that kind of punishment. How much damage do grenades do to SPARTANS in the Halo-verse? Because that's basically what every shot would be like. That's not even touching on heavy weapons, which would include heavy bolters, assault cannons, autocannons, lascannons, missile launchers, multimeltas, and plasma weapons of their own.

Melee combat would be almost entirely in the Marine's favor. They are to big, to heavily armored, and (thanks to the fact that it's powered armor) just to fast for normal humans to deal with. SPARTANS probably could survive, at which point it would come down to training and weapons. A devastator with a knife, for instance, would be fodder. An assault marine sergeant with a power weapon, on the other hand? Would not be betting on the SPARTAN.

So yeah, pretty much in agreement with FD. If the battle were on open terrain, where the UNSC could take advantage of superior range and numbers, it would be difficult for the Marines to prevail. In close terrain, the Marine's superior toughness and more devastating weapons would carry the day with ease. it would be a bloodbath either way.

[Flying Dice]

Just to note, if we're going by weapons as commonly portrayed, there's a bit of a divide between game and non-game lore. Ingame the Haloverse plasma weapons are more or less spitballs, while in non-game lore they're closer to scaled-down 40K plasma weapons.

Basically the only things I see as being any sort of threat to Space Marines are these:
1. The sniper rifle.
2. The Scorpion tank.
3. Either of the variants of the Wraith tank (one rapid-fires fuel rod shots, the other fires blobs of plasma roughly the size of a jeep, and which are actually somewhat effective).
4. Plasma swords.
5. Large quantities of plasma grenades.
6. Massed rocket/fuel rod fire.
7. Massed Gauss cannon fire.
8. The Spartan laser.

All of the more traditional small arms for both the UNSC and Covenant are functionally useless, same deal for the lighter vehicle weapons. :|

[Xantalos]

Know what I wanna see?
It's Samurai Jack's fight against Aku that we see in the opener, about to begin.
Yoda and Sidious are facing off, about to duel to the death.
Suddenly, they're switched, with Yoda getting Jack's sword resized to fit his stature and Jack getting an appropriate sabre. They get all appropriate knowledge the opposite had about their opponents and all that, and they'll be teleported back to their universes if they win.
Wat happen?

[Frumple]

Relatively sure Jack's sword would rebel if Yoda got a hold of it. Above and beyond the bullshit ancestor ion cannon malarky, m'half positive th'bloody thing's at least partially sentient and doesn't like anyone but Jack.

... beyond that, I would entirely bet on Yoda if it were opener!Jack. Iirc, that was backstory/pre-show Jack, and that Jack is notably weaker than Jack at the end of the show. He can't even jump good, yet, or call on the power of dead people to spontaneously manifest orbital strikes. End-game Jack, though... that's a harder choice. Yoda's damn good, but is he "dodge ion strike" good? Yoda has near infinite levels in "tiny badass" but Jack has plot laser. That's a toss-up to me, providing Yoda doesn't just say "Yeah, fuck it" and force choke/lightnings a fool.

Assuming they fight, anyway. Which. Probably. They've both got pretty strong reason to duke it out if there's not a peaceful solution.

[Sirus]

Uh, Frump? Pretty sure Xan was thinking about Yoda fighting Aku while Jack fights Sidious. Not the two heroes fighting each other, because they would be far more likely to team up.

I think.

[Mesa]

I always wanted to see what would happen and who would win in a MOBA standoff in teams of five.
Said MOBAs could include, but not be limited to, Dota, LoL, Smite, Awesomenauts, Heroes of the Storm, Strife, HoN and Infinite Crisis.

Although as much as I love that universe, 'Nauts would be wiped out pretty easily, and eventually it would just probably boil down to Dota VS LoL...I guess.
(although what the teams would be I'll never know because I don't know much about Smit, HotS, Strife, HoN and IC and I'm not into Dota and LoL...Awesomenauts hipster here, although a team of Lonestar/Clunk/Penny Fox/Admiral Swiggins/Froggy G could be a force to be reckoned with...Until they get perma-stunned to death, not to mention their comparatively tiny health bars...~400 is the upper cap, only available to one character under specific circumstances.)

[Xantalos]

Uh, Frump? Pretty sure Xan was thinking about Yoda fighting Aku while Jack fights Sidious. Not the two heroes fighting each other, because they would be far more likely to team up.

I think.

Yes.
Yoda gets Jack's sword resized to fit him since that's one of the only things that hurts Aku, and Jack gets a lightsaber because his sword would just win him the day.
Make it not end of-end of series Jack who can beat the Time Guardian or anything, but midseries Jack, I guess. Jump good, that light ninja thing, excellent fightings, etc.

[Frumple]

oh

well that's kinda' boring

In that case, I kinda' think both would be screwed sideways. Jack would get force choked like a fool, Yoda would get Aku'd into the distant past or somethin'. Unless the whole laser beams thing went along with Yoda to face Aku. Then maybe Yoda would make it. Yoda would depend on how much the sword likes him, basically. Or if hokey jedi hors- ah... powers  has something for dealing with Akus. I'd bet on Aku, though. Aku's kinda' broken, from what I remember. Or would be, if he wasn't vaguely an idiot.

Jack would be screwed, though, I'm sad to say. Zapchokezap, etc. Force is kinda' hax. Unfortunately, the wrong sort of hax for dealing with Akus. How choke thing with six lungs?

... did kinda' make my mind bend, just then. It would make a disturbing amount of sense if Aku is, in fact, Nyarlathotep. Tall, slim, joyous man, thousand maddening forms, fondness of deception and manipulation, many followers... bloody hell. Aku is the Crawling Chaos.

Yeah, I take it back. Yoda's buggered.

E: Samurai Jack actually being set inside lovecraftian mythos is suddenly making entirely too much sense. Halp.

[Sirus]

...Wasn't Aku (part of) some horrible abomination from beyond the known universe, who the gods themselves had to work together to defeat? That's rather Lovecraftian, right?

[Frumple]

Eh, that's more "standard fantasy trope" than mythos stuff specifically, I'd say.

Lovecraftian would be if the gods were horrible abominations from beyond the known universe. Then again, Nyarly is known for deception. It would be entirely in its purview to have created and spread that very story, strictly to give the people of Jack's world an unfounded hope that Aku can tear apart so as to sup upon their despair.

And that's without saying the possibilities inherent in giving the people a false hope that by supplicating the (non-existent) gods some form of succor can be achieved. Why, that would fit exactly into mythos-style shenanigans. Aku cultivating worship of the "gods" (in fact, other aspects of itself), removing and returning his influence as (entirely fabricated) proof of the power of the "gods", driving the misguided worshippers to greater and greater acts of depravity, self-flagellation, etc. I could entirely see the future Jack travels in as the results of a world Aku has lead to sacrifice their flesh and humanity to the worship of the current smith-god Aku has cultivated.

Which turns Jack's path of destruction through the mechanized forces of Aku into something entirely different.

I can see it, really. At some point post-series Jack comes across one of the conversion factories that are replacing the bodies of children with forms of steel and oil. The realization.

E: And Nyarly/Aku is precisely the kind of dick that would create that entire scenario for that exact moment. And then probably send Jack back in time to do it all over again, knowing what he now knows.