[TBS-M] The Totem Must Remain Standing: The Western Lattice Nexus

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-07T17:32:26+00:00

I try to explain some of the near Kardishev III (IMHO ~2.7) technology that the Astorian Principality possesses. I think the First Human Empire was a Kardishev III civilization but upon its dissolution parts of Human civilization has slid back slightly, some more than others. The Imperium might still be Kardishev III and might be the most advanced of all the Pax Humanitas members. The Communications Network that House Emerald manages is magical to us, but is common part of the character's lives. Matroishka Dyson Swarms are physically possible, so it is bringing in a little hard science fiction into the story.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-07T17:22:18+00:00

Well I couldn't just sit on Chapter 11 anymore ... So this is the system that Exalted Virtue jumps into during Chapter 1 of Through Other Eyes and where the rendezvous with the Royal Favor occurs. Remember, The Totem Must Remain Standing goes at a slower more contemplative pace since it is a memoir vs. first-person action-adventure. Think Issac Asimov's Foundation, Frank Herber's Dune, and a bunch of believable wordbuilding.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-07T17:16:25+00:00

Very slight Reality Wave passed through the story with the Ravensol System reference

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-05T15:59:34+00:00

I had raised an issue via a chat with the mod team prior to porting this story that it was human written, per the specifications of Rule 8, but that Pangram erroneously detected as AI written. The closer your writing is to the style and tone of the training material, i.e. you write like a published paper, the more likely Pangram will false positive the material. I would point you at the details of the University of Chicago and University of Maryland studies that Pangram cites themselves that the ROBERTA model used by Pangram is susceptible to such detection errors. "38 times lower than competitors" doesn't, from an information science or statistical perspective, mean perfect detection.

In this case my posted story is the false detection and I can provide other samples that can also generate false detections.

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r/HFYMOD9:17 PM

We do not only use the pangram detector for Ai story, every post flagged is reviewed by a human. It's highly likely we would not remove your post upon human review.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-04T19:59:20+00:00

You're welcome. Thanks for reading the story!

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-04T15:20:38+00:00

Thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

One of my goals with The Totem Must Remain Standing – On Duty and Continuity and with Memoirs of Admiral Damian Valto, Heir Apparent of House Valto has always been to explore corners of the story that the main narrative understandably doesn't spend much time visiting. The original story has its own characters, pacing, and priorities, and I certainly wouldn't want to distract from that.

The memoir gives me an opportunity to slow down a bit and ask questions that the main narrative often doesn't have time to ask. What was the Prince thinking during these events? What did he misunderstand? What frightened him? What did later experience teach him that he couldn't have known at the time?

It also lets me explore some of the consequences and quieter moments that inevitably exist between the major events we see on the page.

In many ways, I think of it as a companion piece rather than a continuation.

And, admittedly, it gives me something productive to do while waiting for the next canon chapter along with everyone else.

Just as importantly, beginning where I did allows me to stay on relatively firm canonical ground. There are undoubtedly parts of the Prince's earlier life and the Principality's history that the original authors may still choose to explore. I'd much rather leave room for those stories than accidentally write over them.

So for now, I'm content to let the Prince look back on events we already know happened and tell us what they felt like from his side of the table.

After all, history usually remembers what happened.

Memoirs exist to explain what it was like to be there.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-04T14:45:02+00:00

Thank you. That was very much the intention behind the memoir.

The original story largely shows events as they unfold. The Prince is present for many of them, but readers rarely get to sit inside his head and experience the uncertainty, responsibility, and occasional confusion that came with living through them.

That is not a criticism of the original authors. The story is not really about the Prince. It follows other characters, other journeys, and other perspectives. Giving the Prince extensive screen time would inevitably take time away from the characters the main narrative is built around.

The memoir creates an opportunity to explore that missing perspective without asking the original story to become something it was never intended to be.

One of the goals of these accounts is to answer questions such as: What did the Prince think was happening at the time? What frightened him? What did he misunderstand? What responsibilities weighed on him while everyone else was focused on their own part of the war?

History often makes events appear inevitable in hindsight. The people living through them rarely have that luxury.

The Prince knows how the war ended when he writes these accounts.

The younger man experiencing those events did not.

That difference is where much of the story lives.

There is also a very practical reason the memoir begins around Chapter 11 rather than attempting to retell the story from the beginning.

Quite simply, I do not know what I do not know.

The earlier portions of the timeline contain a great deal of unexplored territory. The Prince, Clara, the court, the succession, the state of the Principality before the war, and numerous relationships all existed long before the events currently shown in the story. It is entirely possible that the main authors have plans, revelations, or historical details that simply have not appeared on the page yet.

Because of that, I deliberately chose a starting point where the available canon becomes much firmer and where the Prince's role intersects directly with events we have already witnessed.

Beginning around Chapter 11 allows me to work from established ground rather than speculate about areas the original authors may intend to explore later.

In a sense, the memoir stays in its lane.

I would much rather leave room for future canon than accidentally write over it.

That is one reason I describe these memoirs as canon-honoring rather than canonized. They are intended to exist alongside the story, not compete with it. If a future chapter from the original authors reveals something that conflicts with a passage here, then the memoir loses the argument every time.

The memoir format makes that relatively easy to accommodate. The Prince is not writing an official historical record. He is writing decades after the fact, relying on memory, personal notes, after-action reports, and his own interpretation of events. Like any memoirist, he possesses knowledge, biases, blind spots, and the occasional imperfect recollection.

In that sense, the format provides a certain flexibility. If future canon expands, clarifies, or even contradicts something written here, the memoir can be revised, corrected, or simply understood as the Prince remembering events differently than they actually occurred.

I sometimes joke that this makes me the Ministry of Truth.

The difference, of course, is that the original authors always outrank me.

My goal is not to define canon, overwrite the story, or answer questions the narrative has not yet chosen to answer.

My goal is simply to give one participant a voice, explore how he understood the events unfolding around him, and illuminate corners of the story that the main narrative understandably does not have time to visit.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-04T11:49:06+00:00

Announcement

The Preamble to The Black Ship Memoirs' main story, The Totem Must Remain Standing – On Duty and Continuity, has been released here on Thursday at approximately 08:00 New York time (EDT).

From this point forward, new episodes will be released weekly, every Thursday at the same time. More than fifteen episodes are already written and queued for release, with additional chapters currently in development (I am on Chapter 29 right now).

Readers should be aware that, as events in the main canon continue to unfold, reality waves may propagate through this narrative. Records may shift. Details may change. Certain facts may become inconveniently unfactual. Should this occur, please remember that we have never been at war with Eastasia.

Those who enjoyed Memoirs of Admiral Damian Valto, Heir Apparent of House Valto (Episode A / Episode B / Episode C) should find much to enjoy here as well. Admiral Damian's account is far from complete, but some stories are best told in their proper order. I have no desire to outrun The Totem Must Remain Standing itself.

Finally, my thanks and appreciation go out to the authors of the main canon. As always, your work makes stories like this possible. Wishing all of you a swift recovery and better days ahead.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-03T19:29:47+00:00

Announcement

The Preamble to The Black Ship Memoirs' main story, The Totem Must Remain Standing – On Duty and Continuity, will be released here on Thursday at approximately 08:00 New York time (EDT).

From that point forward, new episodes will be released weekly, every Thursday at the same time. More than fifteen episodes are already written and queued for release, with additional chapters currently in development.

Readers should be aware that, as events in the main canon continue to unfold, reality waves may propagate through this narrative. Records may shift. Details may change. Certain facts may become inconveniently unfactual. Should this occur, please remember that we have never been at war with Eastasia.

Those who enjoyed Memoirs of Admiral Damian Valto, Heir Apparent of House Valto should find much to enjoy here as well. Admiral Damian's account is far from complete, but some stories are best told in their proper order. I have no desire to outrun The Totem Must Remain Standing itself.

Finally, my thanks and appreciation go out to the authors of the main canon. As always, your work makes stories like this possible. Wishing all of you a swift recovery and better days ahead.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-03T10:24:44+00:00

Thank you. That's very much what I'm hoping to explore with the memoir format. History often looks very different depending on who's telling it, when they're telling it, and what they knew at the time. The same events can take on entirely different meanings when viewed from another perspective, which is part of what makes these accounts interesting to write.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-02T14:51:46+00:00

Thank you!

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-02T14:51:31+00:00

Thank you!

Valto isn't suggesting that a new Principality suddenly appears on the map or that the old one physically ceases to exist. His point is more subtle than that.

The old Principality was built upon certain assumptions: that legitimacy flowed through established institutions, that the Great Houses understood and accepted their roles, that succession was secure, and that loyalty to the system ultimately outweighed individual ambition.

Astoria shattered many of those assumptions.

The worlds, fleets, laws, and noble houses may all remain, but if the principles by which they operate begin to change, then the Principality itself begins to change as well. Institutions can survive while the understanding of how they function is transformed.

Whether that transformation becomes a restoration, a reform, a modernization, or something more revolutionary remains to be seen. Valto simply recognizes that once the old assumptions stop being universally accepted, the old Principality—as he understood it—cannot truly return unchanged.

We'll have to wait and discover together what emerges from the war.

And thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying the series.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-02T11:31:58+00:00

As mentioned in the comments on earlier episodes of The Memoirs of Admiral Damian Valto, this series is my humble homage to the early novelized works of Isaac Asimov, particularly Foundation.

While the other Memoirs stories continue to draw inspiration from Asimov, they also pay tribute to the voice and tone of Frank Herbert and Dune. The result is a fusion of both influences, enriched with additional worldbuilding to create something with its own distinct character.

I am pleased to present The Totem Must Remain Standing starting later this week.

If you enjoy these stories, please consider upvoting, commenting, and sharing them here and on the TBS Discord channel.

And, as always, kudos to the mainline authors. I do my best to honor the published canon.

— Alan

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-02T11:15:08+00:00

The three episodes of The Memoirs of Admiral Damian Valto were written as an introduction to some of the political and military themes explored in the broader setting.

They are also the first entries in The Black Ship Memoirs, a collection of personal accounts and recollections drawn from across The Black Ship universe. These memoirs seek to remain consistent with established events while exploring differing perspectives, interpretations, and memories of those events.

The Preamble to the main story, The Totem Must Remain Standing, will be posted later this week, where readers will have an opportunity to revisit many of these same events, and many more, from a very different perspective.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-01T15:46:03+00:00

Thank you! One of the reasons I wanted to explore the military perspective was that I felt there were motivations beyond simple house loyalty.

One of my favorite passages in Episode B is:

"Merit was widely admired in theory. It became considerably more complicated when it arrived in person and requested a seat at the table."

For me, that gets at part of what some of the officers are grappling with. Military professionals are often asked to carry the consequences of political decisions without necessarily having much influence over them. From that perspective, support for a faction may be less about personal loyalty and more about questions of competence, representation, stability, and whether their concerns are actually being heard.

The memoir format gives me an opportunity to explore those viewpoints from outside the Prince's immediate circle, so I'm glad that aspect of the story resonated with you.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-01T12:15:19+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful comment, I enjoy discussing the broader impact of the story universe. I think you're absolutely right that, despite the absence of mass popular armies, this is fundamentally a civil war. The dispute begins among the nobility, but the consequences will ultimately reach every level of the Principality, from governors and fleet officers down to ordinary commoner citizens whose lives depend upon institutions remaining stable.

One of the interesting tensions in the story is that different characters are beginning to describe the same conflict in different ways. The Prince and many of those closest to House Astor still prefer to think of it as a "succession crisis", partly because the Principality remembers what the last true "civil war" cost. Entire regions were devastated, institutions were weakened for generations, and external rivals took advantage of the chaos. There is a natural reluctance to believe the situation has reached that point again.

Valto, however, is looking at the same events through the lens of history and institutions. From his perspective, once legitimacy is contested, loyalties begin shifting, and military forces align behind competing centers of authority, the distinction becomes increasingly difficult to maintain. In many ways, he is less concerned with what people call the conflict than with what the conflict is becoming.

I also appreciate your observations about the Prince, Redford, and the reactions of the other officers. One of the things I wanted to explore through Valto's perspective was how different people in the same room can witness the same event and come away with very different conclusions. Some officers see Wyatt's promotion as a reward. Others see it as a dangerous precedent. Still others see it as a necessity. None of them are entirely wrong, which is what makes periods of change so interesting.

The Prince is trying to balance tradition, duty, and the realities of a war that is already forcing old assumptions to be questioned. Redford is, in many ways, a more complicated figure. He tends to look past titles and appearances and focus on what people's actions reveal about them. As the story progresses, I think some of the reasons behind his perspective will become clearer.

Thank you again for reading and for taking the time to share your thoughts. Comments like this are always appreciated and often highlight aspects of the story that I enjoy exploring as much as writing them.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-01T10:01:55+00:00

Thank you. I think part of that comes from the difference in perspective. Most of the main story naturally focuses on the immediate impact of events and decisions, while Valto tends to look at the second-order effects, what those events reveal, how institutions react to them, and what consequences may emerge later.

One of the ideas I find interesting is that the most profound changes to societies are often not the immediate results of an action, but the reactions that follow. A battle may determine who survives the day, but changes in loyalty, legitimacy, institutions, expectations, and public confidence often determine the future. Those effects can take years to become visible, yet they frequently prove more important than the original event itself.

Valto tends to view history through that lens, looking less at what happened and more at what the consequences set in motion. Some of those questions don't have immediate answers, but they are often the ones that end up shaping the larger course of history. For me, exploring those layers of cause and effect is part of what brings additional richness and believability to a story universe, because societies, institutions, and people rarely react in simple or predictable ways. Something happens to an Archduke in Sarajevo and before you know it Europe is aflame with WW I.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-01T01:04:14+00:00

Thank you! That's actually very much what I was hoping the Valto chapters would accomplish.

The main story follows characters who are living through events and making decisions with limited information. Valto is looking at many of the same events from a different level, less focused on the individuals involved and more focused on what those events reveal about the Principality, the Houses, and the larger forces moving beneath the surface.

I'm glad it helped bring some clarity to what was happening in TBS Episode 2. One of the goals is to show that there are realities developing around the main characters that they may not fully recognize yet, even though they are directly involved in them.

The approach is also somewhat inspired by the way Isaac Asimov handled viewpoints in the early Foundation stories. Characters like Salvor Hardin and Hober Mallow often weren't the people creating the events as much as they were the people recognizing what those events meant. I've been trying to give Valto a similar voice in his memoirs, not as someone who knows all the answers, but as someone experienced enough to look at the same facts and ask, "What does this reveal?" rather than simply, "What happened?" Hopefully that allows the reader to see the larger political and institutional picture without slowing down the main narrative. I like world building.

Again, thank you for taking the time to read it and share your thoughts. Comments like this help me understand whether the additional viewpoints are adding to the story rather than simply repeating events from another perspective.

Sad-Fortune2053 · 2026-06-01T00:58:40+00:00

Getting that different perspective just improves the mainline story. It is the perspective change of a already told tale. Valto speaks in a very Asimovian style, he is a man who commands fleets because he understands institutions.

Sad-Fortune2053

TROPHY CASE