SSSS Fic ideas [general repository]

[thegreyarea]

Some fic ideas I've had, starting with nations:

Do Norway, Sweden, and Finland still exist in Y90?  There would still be Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish speakers, but there would be no one left who really remembered what it was like to live in a unified nation of millions of inhabitants; most would know only their own fortified villages, or those close enough to reach by short sea voyages, though there would still be some older people (like Trond) who heard about nations from parents or grandparents.  With no remote communication technology and all travel being dangerous, I think nations might well fall apart.
...
Anyway, I can imagine stories about people in some of these smaller communities: maybe they're even now just being brought back into contact.

Maybe there are people trying to hold the nations together, and meeting either active or passive resistance.

Might there be judges "riding the circuit" to the small towns?  (This used to be the case in America.)  How much authority do people grant them, and why?

Has Christianity really disappeared everywhere, or are some of those little villages Christian communities or communities of other faiths?

Those are all interesting questions. (and I cropped the quote just to make it "lighter").
IIRC, and staying with the canon, radio communications still work, albeit with varying levels of quality and range. However, do small villages have radio equipment? Some may have, others not.
I believe the connection between the smaller settlements and their Nations would be quite loose, probably like it happened in the Middle Ages, when local leadership dealt with almost every issue. The presence of the State was felt mostly through taxes, overall laws and decrees and, of course, the military.

That's a lot of fOoD for stories here. I imagine a small group going from settlement to settlement. That band of travellers could include a judge (like you mentioned), a doctor, a mage, one or two craftsman and a small escort, perhaps four or five fighters. They would collect and deliver mail, valuable supplies that cannot be produced localy, medicines... and help with local issues the village couldn't solve by itself, be it a sick person, a dispute that can escalate into a bloody fight or a particularly annoying troll.

They would also escort people between those places and larger towns (a young person that's going to be trained as a mage, an older person returning to the village after training, a magician that risks life to earn some money...). Ah, the stories those travels could fuel! I feel tempted to do one right now!

[lwise]

"IIRC, and staying with the canon, radio communications still work, albeit with varying levels of quality and range. However, do small villages have radio equipment? Some may have, others not."

Oh, I was figuring that villages surrounded by forests full of grosslings would have intense static interfering with radio communication.  They'd have to have really powerful equipment to punch through the static, which they mostly wouldn't have.

[thegreyarea]

Oh, I was figuring that villages surrounded by forests full of grosslings would have intense static interfering with radio communication.  They'd have to have really powerful equipment to punch through the static, which they mostly wouldn't have.

And I agree.

Small villages wouldn't have that, particularly considering how expensive/rare that equipment would probably be, and the cost/benefit ratio if the place has such a bad "enviroment" that communications just aren't possible most days.
I suppose one ambition many villages would nourish would be getting access to a good radio transmiter, and/or creating the conditions for it to work properly, perhaps building a tower.

Another idea for a story: A small group's strive to build on their isolated village a tower tall enough to allow their old, salvaged radio, to work. But many consider that enterprise foolish, and a waste of resources and time. And then the murders began.

[LooNEY_DAC]

Some fic ideas I've had, starting with nations:

Do Norway, Sweden, and Finland still exist in Y90?  There would still be Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish speakers, but there would be no one left who really remembered what it was like to live in a unified nation of millions of inhabitants; most would know only their own fortified villages, or those close enough to reach by short sea voyages, though there would still be some older people (like Trond) who heard about nations from parents or grandparents.  With no remote communication technology and all travel being dangerous, I think nations might well fall apart.

Sweden is the most unified of the three; 3/4 of the population lives in "Mora", which I assume means Mora plus various farming villages around it.  If you add up the populations of the four largest cities, you get 18,550, leaving 2,350 Swedes who live in villages smaller than Lulea with a population of 350.  I wonder how much attachment those villagers feel to Mora or the old nation of Sweden, given they had to run things for themselves for years or decades with no help or contact from outside.

My thoughts on Sweden are as follows (feel free to disagree):

Sweden has a railway web on the map going north to at least Skelleftea; in the comic, the journey from Bjorkofjarden to Mora is shown to be completely safe during the day; during the day, even traveling on the Sveavagen rail line through the areas of highest danger is safe. For all these reasons, I think travel within Sweden is easier and more commonplace than in any other nation besides Iceland, with a concomitant greater sense of nationality and common purpose, among other things. I half-joked years ago about Sweden probably taking over the rest of the Known World outside Iceland for this very reason.

OTOH, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland have been their own nations for essentially over a millennium, back when travel was very nearly as difficult as in Y90, so there might be a stronger sense of nationality then we'd think.

I believe the connection between the smaller settlements and their Nations would be quite loose, probably like it happened in the Middle Ages, when local leadership dealt with almost every issue. The presence of the State was felt mostly through taxes, overall laws and decrees and, of course, the military.

I'd consider that highly probable.

Just my two cents' worth.

[lwise]

Another idea for a story: A small group's strive to build on their isolated village a tower tall enough to allow their old, salvaged radio, to work. But many consider that enterprise foolish, and a waste of resources and time. And then the murders began.

Or villages might build tall towers where they could install lights and flash messages by Morse code to each other, in the evenings when the weather was clear.

Speaking of which, they would probably need (or at least want) electricity.  Given that the villages would be very small and they'd mostly use electricity for lighting (using LED lights, which are efficient, numerous, and likely to keep for decades under good conditions), they might have small water-driven turbines (which would have to be protected against grosslings) or they might have wind-belts (which can be built from scrap materials).  I don't think solar cells would hold up well for decades.

[thegreyarea]

Sweden has a railway web on the map going north to at least Skelleftea; in the comic, the journey from Bjorkofjarden to Mora is shown to be completely safe during the day; during the day, even traveling on the Sveavagen rail line through the areas of highest danger is safe. For all these reasons, I think travel within Sweden is easier and more commonplace than in any other nation besides Iceland, with a concomitant greater sense of nationality and common purpose, among other things. I half-joked years ago about Sweden probably taking over the rest of the Known World outside Iceland for this very reason.

OTOH, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland have been their own nations for essentially over a millennium, back when travel was very nearly as difficult as in Y90, so there might be a stronger sense of nationality then we'd think.

I fully agree with all that.

(I just don't know where the Danes have the manpower and industrial base to make those big tanks and weapons... Bornholm is small and seems to be very rural. Maybe that equipment was made by Swedes or Icelanders, or maybe they are old world material and it's just that Minna's way of drawing them wasn't very accurate...)

Or villages might build tall towers where they could install lights and flash messages by Morse code to each other, in the evenings when the weather was clear.

That's a interesting idea. Something like optical semaphores might work. Problems would be range (better on places with mountains, like Norway) and weather, as you mentioned. So they could have that but still wish to have a radio.

Speaking of which, they would probably need (or at least want) electricity.  Given that the villages would be very small and they'd mostly use electricity for lighting (using LED lights, which are efficient, numerous, and likely to keep for decades under good conditions), they might have small water-driven turbines (which would have to be protected against grosslings) or they might have wind-belts (which can be built from scrap materials).  I don't think solar cells would hold up well for decades.

Water turbines are limited to places where you can find a height differential big enough to generate a good amount of power. Of course any old-style water mill could be adapted to provide some energy, perhaps enough for a few devices (I'll try to find out later how much), and, as you said, there's the grosslings problem...

I would bet on wind power. Small units are easy to build and mantain, long lasting and would work on many places, and can be safely behind walls, far from any grossling. It would be wise, however, to find a way to "set the sails down" when a storm is coming... And since it's canon that they have good batteries it would be possible to store some energy for those moments without wind.

Speaking of batteries, considering they would be something made only on bigger cities (I would say just Iceland and Mora), carrying a new set of batteries for a village would be an important task, turning them on convenient plot devices.

[lwise]

(I just don't know where the Danes have the manpower and industrial base to make those big tanks and weapons... Bornholm is small and seems to be very rural. Maybe that equipment was made by Swedes or Icelanders, or maybe they are old world material and it's just that Minna's way of drawing them wasn't very accurate...)

I don't believe the whole Known World (total population 250,000, many busy defending against grosslings) working together could make those big tanks and weapons.  I think they must be old world material that the Danes managed to take back to their base at enormous cost to their Army.

That's a interesting idea. Something like optical semaphores might work. Problems would be range (better on places with mountains, like Norway) and weather, as you mentioned. So they could have that but still wish to have a radio.

Hmm.  Fanfic about one or two people manning one of the relay towers, perhaps in a church steeple in an abandoned village ...

Water turbines are limited to places where you can find a height differential big enough to generate a good amount of power. Of course any old-style water mill could be adapted to provide some energy, perhaps enough for a few devices (I'll try to find out later how much), and, as you said, there's the grosslings problem...

I would bet on wind power. Small units are easy to build and mantain, long lasting and would work on many places, and can be safely behind walls, far from any grossling. It would be wise, however, to find a way to "set the sails down" when a storm is coming... And since it's canon that they have good batteries it would be possible to store some energy for those moments without wind.

As you say, even just a water mill could work.  Also, there ought to be plenty of bicycles around that you could adapt for human power; should work as long as you're just powering LED lights.

Speaking of batteries, considering they would be something made only on bigger cities (I would say just Iceland and Mora), carrying a new set of batteries for a village would be an important task, turning them on convenient plot devices.

Yep!

[tehta]

The proposed Battery Quest reminds me of the Water Chip Quest in the original Fallout...

Two points:
-- There are no bicycles in the comic. (Both wave and I looked recently.) This is VERY WEIRD, as they would be very useful in Iceland, Mora, and Bornholm, at least. Off-road bikes could be used in the Silent World, but I guess tyres are the limiting factor. (It is possible to have wooden tires, at least in a city bike.)
-- One other option for inter-village communication, in Norway and Iceland, is, of course, mages, who can talk to each other across some distance through dream-walking. Maybe even in Finland -- some mages could specialize in roaming the dream-sea.
I have half-started stories built around both these ideas. In each case it's about the usual team, and how they start the first (recovered) bicycle/mage-a-gram company in order to get rich. (Leaving the Evil Committee in the dust! Or possibly sparking a rivalry.)

[tehta]

Another fic idea, based on my life: people have been bringing up taxation. I wonder how that works for small villages? Roving armed tax collectors? And I wonder how that works for Our Heroes -- surely they should be paying taxes on their mission income? In which country? (Denmark, where they technically worked? Iceland, where the mission was made official? Their tax domiciles -- but what would those be, in year 90? Sigrun and Emil will not have a substantial presence in their countries of citizenship.) Anyway, aren't most of them the type to forget, or even not to understand such things in the first place?

So, fic idea: the team has to take an emergency job to pay a huge tax backlog.

[lwise]

Income tax is pretty sophisticated, requiring a lot of paperwork and maybe not practical for the Y90 economy.  I'd think taxes are largely raised on cargos brought into ports or overland into cities, thus there would be plenty of opportunities for corruption or smuggling (fanfic).  There might also be something like a residence fee for living in the walled cities, which would go to maintaining the defenses.  The various armies and navies may be funded in whole or in part by fees charged to those they protect.

Our Heroes brought a cargo of books to Iceland, so that would have been taxed in Iceland.  That's my guess.

[tehta]

Yeah, I think you're right about a general income tax, although (local?) tithes might be imposed on farm produce and similar (it would go some way towards feeding that huge military). I just find the idea of income taxation in the ssss world funny.

Maybe Iceland would have the most complex system? Medieval Iceland had property taxes.

[JoB]

Maybe Iceland would have the most complex system? Medieval Iceland had property taxes.

Candle tax, maybe?

[dmeck7755]

Candle tax, maybe?

That link has some US states taxes
Massachusetts: when traveling into the state and importing alcoholic beverages, a special permit must be completed and fees must be paid to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.

Which is funny, so every time I go to the Finger Lakes in NY and bring back wine, I am a booze runner

lol

[thegreyarea]

I believe there would be two kinds of taxation on Y90. On larger cities, where you can have the structure to support the bureaucracy, we would have taxes over property, income, consumption of some products, perhaps even a kind of VAT over everything. States are always creative and diligent on that...

On smaller places they could have local taxes and maybe a kind of annual tribute to the Crown central state (again, pretty medieval) to be paid with money or goods or, who knows, services like keeping a road safe(ish)...

BTW, speaking of funny taxes, Portugal had, up to 1970 (!) an annual tax for using a lighter (!), created to protect the local producers of matches (!). link to a page in portuguese

(even funnier, it was forbiden inside towns to "make fire" (be it with a lighter or matches) on open air, for example to light a cigarrete. The law phrasing referred that those devices had to be used "under roof tile". Therefore some people carried a small piece of tile with them and covered their lighter/match with it to avoid penalties. And yes, that's true, I'm not making it up   )

[Jitter]

Yeah, I would imagine the taxes would be per head or per house(hold), and supplemented by duties on transported goods. Not only between nations but also entering major cities. Like if you want to sell your goods in the Mora Grand Market, you have to pay so and so for the privilege.

I also think some or a lot of the tax would be in the form of foodstuffs to feed the military. I wonder if there would have to be a taxman or just make it known that if a village doesn’t pay their taxes, they will not get help. So, fic idea: families leaving the (more or less) protected areas to cleanse their own places and live there with no tax and no protection. The Finns (as well as everyone else of course) have been doing so forever, until the modern times when you cannot really disappear at least in Finland. Especially if Surma and the Kade have cleared some of the grosslings away from the east, it could become the new “frontier”.

Waaaay back, during the Iron Age / Viking times there were chains of bonfires used to alert many settlements when raiders were coming. But that sort of thing wouldn’t work here as the enemy i.e. the grosslings are everywhere. But maybe a radio system based on relay towers? Then there could be just a few, as the range could be greater than for visual communications. Basically we can decide whatever range we like because the limiting factor is the black static, and all we know about it from canon that it tends to stop communications over the distance from Øresund base to Silent Denmark but doesn’t always do so.

I was sure I saw someone listening to radio in a public broadcast type of settings in Saimaa, but I went looking for it and couldn’t find it. Must’ve been Reykjavik then. There’s just a couple of people reading newspapers. And in the flashback the wording is “send for containment ships”. How do they send? Homing pigeons? Might work for one way alarm. Radio? Courier who has a special one person quarantine facility to allow emergency message delivery?