Luther Arkwright, why are the Disruptors doing what they do?

[Stoatbringer]

Reading the Luther Arkwright supplement and the comics I can't find out why the Disruptors do what they do. Why do they want to set off FireFrost after messing up several socieities across the multiverse? Wouldn't FireFrost decimate all their forces, and make waste of their work too? Is their motivation merely just to commit seppuku in a spectacular fashion? 

Edited June 24, 2017 by Stoatbringer

[yojimbo]

See this.

[Stoatbringer]

2 hours ago, yojimbo said:

See this.

Very interesting, but it still does not answer my questions. Why are they manipulating various parallels? To what end if they then activate FireFrost and that destroys everything? It can't be power, because there won't be anything to rule after FireFrost. So do they simply want to end it all with a bang and not a whimper? It just doesn't seem to make any sense.

Edited June 24, 2017 by Stoatbringer

[Y Mab Darogan]

49 minutes ago, Stoatbringer said:

Very interesting, but it still does not answer my questions. Why are they manipulating various parallels? To what end if they then activate FireFrost and that destroys everything? It can't be power, because there won't be anything to rule after FireFrost. So do they simply want to end it all with a bang and not a whimper? It just doesn't seem to make any sense.

Maybe they're nihilistic.

[tobarstep]

53 minutes ago, Stoatbringer said:

 So do they simply want to end it all with a bang and not a whimper? It just doesn't seem to make any sense.

It doesn't make sense to our human minds at least. Of course, this same "motivation" appears in probably 2/3 of all fictional villains.

[lawrence.whitaker]

The Disruptors' true purpose is known only to the vast AI that manifests as The One. It's possible that The One is utterly insane, and pursues chaos for its own sake, which would put it on a par with the Lords of Chaos: indeed, on some parallels it may manifest as such.

The various Disruptor agents tend to be concerned with local power and domination; as such, their motivations are usually wealth, influence and destroying those who offend or oppose them. This means that the Disruptors really have many purposes, and are controlled through dozens of layers that eventually roll back to The One, which seems convinced that the ultimate destruction of reality is something it needs to achieve.

I don't think it's worth overthinking this, or striving for a rational purpose. What's important is that there's an insidious force capable of manipulating alternate realities to malevolent ends to varying degrees. Much the same as the Cthulhu Mythos or the objectives of the Lords of Law and Chaos in Moorcock's novels.

[yojimbo]

2 hours ago, Stoatbringer said:

Very interesting, but it still does not answer my questions. Why are they manipulating various parallels? To what end if they then activate FireFrost and that destroys everything? It can't be power, because there won't be anything to rule after FireFrost. So do they simply want to end it all with a bang and not a whimper? It just doesn't seem to make any sense.

Did you read The True History of the Disruptors? That seems to state what their motives are under the section The Bringer of Light.

[Stoatbringer]

27 minutes ago, yojimbo said:

Did you read The True History of the Disruptors? That seems to state what their motives are under the section The Bringer of Light.

Did you read my questions? I'm wanting to know what the motivation of the Disruptors is, when activating FireFrost will ultimately undo all they have done. I already know about The Bringer of light. But his motivation seems unclear when the lesser Disruptors have gone to all the trouble of causing chaos here, law there and balance nowhere.   

Edited June 24, 2017 by Stoatbringer

[Stoatbringer]

2 hours ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

I don't think it's worth overthinking this, or striving for a rational purpose. 

I'm not sure that I would agree. Having some subtle or strange motivation could be an impetus to further scenarios before, or after Luther Arkwright and the Five destroy the Bringer of light. Of course being a manifestation of Moorcockian chaos would be a fairly simple explanation, but not all that interesting as far as stimulating plots for scenarios. 

Edited June 24, 2017 by Stoatbringer

[yojimbo]

Just now, Stoatbringer said:

Did you read my questions? I'm wanting to know what the motivation of the Disruptors is, when activating FireFrost will ultimately undo all they have done. I already know about The Bringer of light. But his motivation seems unclear when the lesser Disruptors have gone to all the trouble of causing chaos here, law there and balance nowhere.   

I assume that creating chaos was to set up the correct psychic environment for the FireFrost to activate as intended. However, I see what you're getting at. Most low-level Disruptors can't know this. So what lie are they sold in order to get them to achieve this?

[Stoatbringer]

43 minutes ago, yojimbo said:

I assume that creating chaos was to set up the correct psychic environment for the FireFrost to activate as intended. However, I see what you're getting at. Most low-level Disruptors can't know this. So what lie are they sold in order to get them to achieve this?

Maybe FireFrost has been reprogrammed to reboot reality to give the Bringer some kind of apotheosis and control over reality, and the Bringer is so paranoid that he informs no one else of his true motives? Rereading the comics the Bringer states "...We could reprogramme the device as a power source." After the Bringer's demise Luther Arkwright uses the psionic energy from to become godlike, and do all sorts of cool stuff, like split FireFrost, and heal himself, apart from being omnipotent. So that theory makes a bit more more sense as a motivation for the Bringer than just him being the ultimate in nihilism or chaos, and stimulates some ideas for scenarios. 

Edited June 24, 2017 by Stoatbringer

[Stoatbringer]

  "And FireFrost-the conjunction of opposites...the female-male principle..the destroyer and creator-sinks into the prehistoric ocean." This quote shows that FireFrost can be used to create as well as destroy. After the destruction of the Bringer Arkwright splits it in two and the parts drift off into space. So some enterprising villain could  seek to use the creative or destructive half if they could gain them. Maybe there is a scenario  in that?

Edited June 24, 2017 by Stoatbringer

[Belgath]

My bases I added to the stories,  is that the use of the fire frost is what created the parallels the first place. But this had The devastating effect on the greater  entities in the universe. What we would consider Gods had trouble surviving in the multi-verse as they draw power from the very fabric of existence. With  reality splintered into millions the multiple power parallels. There is less energy to draw from so that the more powerful beings started dying out, or had to flee to unoccupied paralleled to survive. More evil entities sought to destroy  others due to the limited resources. The only way The One can ultimately survive. Is collapse enough of the parallels to ensure he has enough power to draw from. In his insanity Hopes to destroy all but one gaining ultimate power for himself.

 

Edited June 26, 2017 by Belgath

[lawrence.whitaker]

3 hours ago, Stoatbringer said:

I'm not sure that I would agree. Having some subtle or strange motivation could be an impetus to further scenarios before, or after Luther Arkwright and the Five destroy the Bringer of light. Of course being a manifestation of Moorcockian chaos would be a fairly simple explanation, but not all that interesting as far as stimulating plots for scenarios. 

This depends entirely on the GM of course. The beauty of Arkwright is that you can make things as simple or as complicated as you wish. The One's singular purpose may be unfathomable to mortal minds and be fiendishly complex - plans within plans within plans), or it may be completely uncomplicated. Firefrost could trigger the collapse of this multiverse and in so doing create a Big Bang that triggers a new one where The One is the single, sole, prevalent intelligence that can shape all reality as it sees fit.

Ultimately it's up to you.

[Belgath]

The Luther Arkwright is very versatile I use it for all my CoC, space and post apocalyptic games now. 

[Raleel]

4 hours ago, Belgath said:

The Luther Arkwright is very versatile I use it for all my CoC, space and post apocalyptic games now. 

Indeed, once I started rethinking some of the elements, it became a really cool book for me to pillage. Thinking LA plus Monster Island would make a fascinating campaign. 

[g33k]

All right, you lot.  That's about enough!

I am NOT going to add this book to my "buy" list -- I'm not I'm not I'm not !!!

No matter how many tempting links to a fascinating setting you post!  978-1-91147-101-1  No matter how many people use it for cool and wildly-varying settings other than the intended one.

So you can just stop it.  You hear me?  STOP IT RIGHT NOW.

I'm only so strong...

 

[Mankcam]

Yes stop it, I'm poor this month !!!

[Raleel]

I am pretty sure that Valhalla in Earth 00-00-00 discovered 02-04-06 with the strange island of Mu. Disrupters have yet to invade this Earth, perhaps viewing it as too primitive to bother with. They may be wrong however, as Mu is populated by an ancient and decadent race of reptilian origin with power over a strange force via incantation and ritual. But more to the point, stable dimensional portals appear in multiple places on the Island - portals of jade blocks with alien glyphs that are sometimes struck by lightning and change which dimension they are attached to. This provides Valhalla with an incredibly potent (if one way) strategic advantage against the Disrupters. Only those of the highest security clearances are even aware of the existence of Mu, let alone the portals themselves. A few that have overheard conversations have heard that contact with the Naacal - whoever they are - has yet to be made.

Mu itself appears to be populated by primitive natives as well, but who also appear to have some sort of ectoplasmic-psionic power that they believe allows them to interact with their ancestors - undoubtedly formed from mental images. It also has a disproportionate amount of megafauna, and flora that is highly varied. Some of it is quite toxic, and almost sentient. more study is warranted.

 

[Stoatbringer]

18 hours ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

This depends entirely on the GM of course. The beauty of Arkwright is that you can make things as simple or as complicated as you wish. The One's singular purpose may be unfathomable to mortal minds and be fiendishly complex - plans within plans within plans), or it may be completely uncomplicated. Firefrost could trigger the collapse of this multiverse and in so doing create a Big Bang that triggers a new one where The One is the single, sole, prevalent intelligence that can shape all reality as it sees fit.

Ultimately it's up to you.

As metatemporal nomad Jerrik Ornell once famously said (at least in this group of parallels) "Your multiverse may vary!"  

Edited June 25, 2017 by Stoatbringer

[Belgath]

Just a map and notes for some of my  Parallels 

[Matt_E]

They're not parallels if they meet in the center.   Sorry, couldn't resist...

[Belgath]

9 hours ago, Matt_E said:

They're not parallels if they meet in the center.   Sorry, couldn't resist...

Now on parallel 10-41-10 A parallel is  defined as a bunch of lines that meet at the center with  blobby circle things if Belgath Drew it.?

[g33k]

On 6/26/2017 at 9:22 AM, Matt_E said:

They're not parallels if they meet in the center.   Sorry, couldn't resist...

No no... they aren't meeting in the center... It's a matter of perspective.

They're receding to infinity !

(if you're not gonna resist, you gotta know you'll pull others down with you...    )

 

[Matt_E]

What flavor of peyote do you need to attain that sort of perspective? :-b

Seriously, though, Belgath, you keep drawing whatever you like.  It's interesting.