Cracks in the Wall

I can't pretend to understand.  But his thoughts were my thoughts.

And as the other mentioned, in many ways, we are all the same.

Is there really such a thing as the elite?

Luck and fortune huh...

No tears. Just emptiness. Watching a once-bright candle in the dark go out.

Sufficiently Advanced Technology

SORCERERS - These are the pioneers, the genii, who do things in ways they themselves cannot really explain. They are the ones who first harness the basic “forces” inherent to the system. It all seems obvious and instinctive to them, but few others actually grasp what they are doing. Usually misunderstood and if their book has no obvious use, mocked.

WIZARDS - The first who understand sorcerers - they take the work of the pioneers are go "I can do this" or "oh, I get it" and break it down into parts, make it reliable, understandable and useable by others (well, other wizards at least). Using this knowledge they begin to build systems and functions from the ground up. Pioneers in that they take an otherwise useless function and make it relevant.

 SHAMANS - Whether by chance or design, these people will look at the functions built by wizards - and enhance them. While they themselves do not fully understand how the functions work, they know what each function does, and how to use and link them together. They can tell when a function is corrupt, sometimes where its corrupt and also how to fix it. Note that they do not know how to build a function from the ground up - but can repair, restore or combine functions by comparing it with another. They are key in translating the operation of functions into certain methodologies for "communication"

PRIESTS - They popularize the functions. At this point, the priests have little to no knowledge of the underlying functions - just the methodologies involved. They are really good at identifying, simplifying and spreading use of these methodologies though. Cannot repair, let alone create functions, unless aided by an existing function designed to do so in the first place. Cannot create their own methodologies.

SOLDIERS- The end result. They take the Holy Sword of +2 and swing. Five hundred thousand of them can take down a dragon. And possibly do other important stuff, like banking.

Drabble

"Behold, the beasts of the world." There were dragons and demons. Leviathans that shook the earth. Creatures possessing a thousand teeth and fifty arms, and others with a thousand more. Beings of lightning and fire, wind and noise - that whirled with elemental fury and untamed might. All were hungry. All did feast. They ate the ground, or so I thought. "No quite," spoke my guide, and so we moved further. And the ground was not a ground, but rather the hide of a far greater beast, one that dwarfed the rest a thousand fold. Its skin was as rock but fluid as the sea. At once it seemed to be a single entity, yet many joined as one. The others tore into it with reckless abandon, ripping great shreds of its hide and flesh to chew. And yet the Great beast paid them no mind, simply continuing as it were on the simple feat of existing. It bled and shook and spilled but slowly regrew, so massive was it that none could dent it. Then, a leviathan roared. With the aid of the elementals it burrowed deep into the flesh of the massive beast. In it they gorged a massive hole, one far larger than any before. And in that hole I did glimpse at once both horrors left untold and beauty beyond perfection. The Great Beast screamed. All around, its flesh churned and writhed, sprouting teeth and fangs and eyes. A nightmarish assembly that swallowed the leviathan and the thunder, that tamed the untameable and consumed the ever-hungry. For a second its surface swarm with the bones of its prey, then all was silent save the endless chewing of the remaining beasts. A single entity of many parts. One that ate and was eaten, that was passive yet supremely dangerous, that cared not for itself yet was all that mattered; "What is it?" I asked my guide. "That," came the answer, tinged with laughter, "that is Humanity." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- My mind thinks of weird things when I'm in the toilet. Wrote this in 5 minutes, so please excuse the lack of QC. Meh.

Hotel State

Its an rather accurate analogy or model, don't you think? Its a hotel state, and we are the staff. Effectively, they are like guests enjoying the facilities in exchange for money, while the rest of us are the staff. The ones who run the place, but don't actually get to enjoy it. You've got the technicians, the room service, the security guards...(well, technically everyone's required a bit of training as a security guard). Not actually a bad economic model, for earning money and such. Naturally, despite the wealth that flows into the hotel, the staff aren't really paid much. Most of it goes to the management and the owners. Naturally, the staff can't rent the rooms in the hotel itself, nor afford some of the more exclusive facilities despite being the ones who clean them. I suppose the important thing here is not to tell the staff that they are guests, lest they become deluded and forget their place.