Intergalactic Summit

Merlins are shite.

Goshdang Hookbills and their horrific five med-slots. It's a blessing they do not have generous fitting resources. Getting into a brawl with a Hookbill that has managed to use the five meds to maximise tank is always a tense encounter. Isi can't have enough of it.

I haven't gotten into a good Hookbill fight for a long time and I should fix that.

I have spent the last few days examining the Takmahl statues that I have in my possession.

First, I subjected them to a series of scans.

Gravimetric scan, to look for unusual mass concentrations. Magnetic scans to look for magnetic anomalies. That kind of thing.


I noticed an anomaly in one statue. It was hollow.

Carefully disassembling the statue, which was quite simple, as it turns out, because it had been a multi-part sculpture, I found a cavity containing some inert electronics.

No power source or remains of a power source was located within the statue cavity, though there was a loop of cable, which resembled a magnetic inductance loop. This suggests the statue was powered externally, with no direct electrical connection between the power source and the statue.

Anyway. Careful analysis of the electronics revealed the nature of the device. It appeared to be a very-low frequency audio generator. When in operation, it would have generated low frequency sounds that have long been known to produce a variety of sensations in people, including the feeling that something supernatural is occurring.

This analysis was of course conducted using archaeoelectronic methodology, the first rule of which is "Don't turn it on before you know what it does". Something that some capsuleers might want to think about.


So, this particular hollow statue, appears to be somewhat of a deceptive device. Unfortunately, this particular statue was not recovered in situ, instead being found amongst a number of looted Takmahl artifacts, so the archaeological context of the statue is unknown. It may have been used to terrorise, or to inspire. I don't know.



As to how to weaponise such statuary, well, the obvious means would be to deploy innumerable statues onto populated worlds, each statue filled with electronics and a power source, such that it loudly proclaims various audio clips, such as Scripture quotes, or other such things. Set them up in fields, public spaces, on top of buildings, and the incessant shouting of the statues would surely have some kind of effect upon the populace.

Very well. My Takmahl statues are now being converted into media output sources, adding to the already relentless brainwashing and propaganda campaign directed against my slave colony.

I wonder whether it would be appropriate to even further increase the terror of these statues among my slaves by offering slave sacrifices to them, the archaeo-theological issue at stake being whether the Takhmal god be a close enough match to the Red God such that the sin of worshiping or sacrificing to a "different god" is avoided. As the greatest living Takmahl archaeo-theologian, Lady Valerie, perhaps you have an opinion on whether it be permitted to sacrifice slaves to Takmahl statues.

Theologically, the Takmahl God and the Red God are the same entity, just a slight difference in the particular aspects that are worshippped.

Sacrificing to the statues would of course be, idolatry, possibly even blasphemy. Because the statues are not God, merely artistic representations of God.

Sacrificing in the presence of the statues is different, of course.