That jumpship has a flared base. Just sayin'.

Pffft, real women don't have ribs. Or intestines. Or a functioning spine.

Okay, I absolutely missed this bit, so thanks. For some reason I thought they still had some ownership/influence on the area to their southwest, at least on paper. I know the Dark Ages/Blackout/whatever it's called screwed with them HARD, but I didn't realise they were in that rough shape.

Oof.

I don't want less IS stories. I just want some variation.

Also I admit I'm a touch biased, because I think the Clans are ass-backwards narcissists, but that's me personally.

But I want to stress, I very much appreciate this conversation and your perspective. Big fan of your videos and work. :)

That's fair. I guess personally I'm just a little tired of the exact same Great Houses and/or Clans being the subject of every single storyline ever. It reeks of the same hyperfocus that, say, Ultramarines get in 40k, to the narrative detriment of all other factions and the setting in general.

I don't think, nor did I mean to suggest, that they are equal in strength to the Great Houses, Clans, etc. But I do think if they shake things up and continue to exploit the situation with Andurien, the Capellans, etc, then they could become moer than they are.

Same with the Taurians.

Yeah, a Clan that conquered/joined with a Periphery nation. Cna structure and influence aside, you said it yourself. "Not really a periphery state anymore".

Look, I'm not saying the Periphery is suddenly going to be the next protagonists. But not using them at all is narratively counter-intuitive

*include something but not use it. Missed a word.

2. The Raven Alliance was previously the Outworlds Alliance, a Perophery nation. Sure, the addition of a Clan to them changed their dynamic, but it's worked, and they're having pretty significant involvement on plot things right now iirc. So never say never. I mean, why include something but use it?

I think we can agree to disagree on this a bit. You're not wrong, and I don't completely disagree either. But 2 examples.

1. Let's say the MoC continues to welcome expats and refugees fleeing other war-torn nations. That's a lot of manpower, and possibly technical/scientific expertise to add. 1/2

Perhaps I should rephrase. I don't want/expect them to shift entirely away from the Great Houses, Clans, etc. But I do think there's room in the setting to change the dynamic, if even slightly. It prevents setting stagnation, and if the Clan Invasion managed it, why not the Periphery?

You're probably not wrong. I just don't want the Periphery to be sidelined as always, or worse, used as a sort of "Oh yeah, we definitely didn't forget that exists" plot device to further flesh out IS characters/factions yet again.

Though it does seem that the MoC is on the rise as of IKEO.

This is incredible, and really captures the feel of "otherness" about that mech. Like it is just fundamentally WRONG, in that a piece of machinery should not be malevolent or hungry.

Well done!

This is fair. For myself, I really want to see the IS map expand to include the Periphery as new major powers, just to shake things up in a manner similar to how the Clans did (though likely to a lesser extent).

I'd like to see the Magistracy and Taurians become true forces to be reckoned with.

Lol interesting. I haven't read that book myself, I only perused Il-Khan's Eyes Only to bring myself up to speed on the current era (only got into BT this year).

If you don't mind me asking, what was it in that book that was so bad/unpolular?