text; anonymous; English

[hackingyoursensors]

When I arrived here, I assumed the barrier had been meant to keep us in and that the Emperor controlled it. By now, I think it's obvious that that's not the case. The barrier is meant to keep things out. When Tu Vishan dove underwater, the barrier stayed up and held back the jingashi. But they broke through and, judging by the kedans' reactions, that had never happened before. In fact, I asked around. It hasn't ever happened before, not until lately.

Point two: a satellite falls out of the sky, breaks through the barrier, and lands on Tu Vishan. First of all, this suggest that there is-- or was-- some kind of long-distance communication technology. It also suggests that the barrier is weakening even more. Before, it took the stress of thousands of jingashi to weaken the barrier. Now all it takes is debris. Big debris, sure, but decidedly less stress than the jingashi.

As for the Emperor, it's possible she's contributing power to maintain the barrier, but it doesn't originate from her. Tu Vishan is the one maintaining it.

I know everyone's concerned about what's coming, but we can't let that distract us completely from the big picture. My point is that we need to slow down and rethink what we think we know. Since the barrier is our first line of defense against any outside invasion, let's start there. What do we know, what do we think we know, and how can that help us?


[The text has been helpfully translated into French, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, German, and Japanese.]

Comments

text;

[fatedchaos]

But we haven't seen all of the mainland. There could be more, in that case.

Or whoever used the satellite is gone now. A remnant from this world's past.

perma-text; anonymous

[hackingyoursensors]

Like the remnants of a dead civilization.

I don't know, there's something here I can't quite put my finger on.

[fatedchaos]

Kind of creepy when it's put like that.

Something like what? I know you don't have your finger on it, but even if you're close to something...

[hackingyoursensors]

I think I'm overlooking a possibility.

[fatedchaos]

Not that hard here, considering the lack of answers we already have at our disposal.

[hackingyoursensors]

It's like every time we learn more, it just adds to the questions.

But at least everyone's thinking about it now. The barrier is our only defense from outside threats.

[fatedchaos]

That's because every answer we get isn't the whole story.

We'll figure it out, somehow.