Author Topic: CHapterhouse Lecture Hall 2020  (Read 2551 times)

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Offline Libby

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CHapterhouse Lecture Hall 2020
« on: August 01, 2020, 10:35:56 PM »
Aosta had been selected as the venue for this years lecture series and the school grounds were already becoming a bustlin hive of activity. All the school classrooms were open for people to go around and view, several of the classes had exhibitions of the various senior students work on display and some of the more gifted members of the future Missionara Protectiva stood happily explaining their projects to visitors from the other Chapterhouses or even various other academic bodies across Mundus.

The large green lawn had largely been taken over by a huge network of white marquees where refreshments were being served as girls gave demonstrations of traditional Bene Gesserit dancers accompanied by musicians. Music had always been seen as a great way of keeping various tales of the faith and its history alive and the dances utilised movements to connect to them and as such they were both a way of entertaining and informing the public of the Bene Gesserit faith. Currently on a little stage with a guitar was Lilias MacIomhair a 16 year old prospective Missionara and gifted musician. She was playing a rather slow lament telling the story of the downfall of humanity before the first incarnation of the Kwizach Hadrach emerged to save mankind, effectively resetting humanity. She was wearing the trademark blue overlapping double breasted jacket and matching trousers, it had the appearence of a military uniform minus any headwear, her epuletts had red tags on indicating that she was a senior student and the Harp on them linked her to the Cenneg Chapterhouse. Around her guests including those invited from outside the Sisterhood were having snacks and drinks waiting for the lectures to begin in the grand hall which was just to one side of the lawn.

A feint hum of motor vehicles could be heard alongside the music and several of the girls who had been in the tents stood and headed quiet excitedly for the door. The white trimmed black robes of the Mothers mingled with the blue uniform of the Missionara with a fient smattering of khaki clad Truthsayers in their military style dress uniform all were keen to get out and caused a slight bottleneck at the tents open door. A very small number of red clad Honored Matres were also making their way outside but hardly any of these had been invited unless they had siblings in the Missionara or their parents were well connected in some way. The noise outside was the arrival of the Reverend Mother who had come for the lectures. Her motorcade had stopped once it had turned off the Aostan highway and begun its journey down the schools private drive, the driver had fixed to each wing a flag, the left the flag of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood and the right the flag of the Theocracy of Kaitaine. The car came to a stop and from the schools entrance and beneath the orange and black flag of the Theocracy of Kaitaine came a stern looking woman, her hair scrapped hard back. Olimpia Vico  had taken over the school in Aosta two years ago and was keen to make a good impression. She turned and barked in Gaelic and four girls in Truthsayer uniform hurried to make a guard of honour at the cars door. Olimpia herself opened it and then bowed her head as Erin McGregor the head of the Sisterhood, the Reverend Mother, emerged. She was wearing a plain black robe with a gold chain indicating her rank, the hood of the robe obscurred her face but as she turned to face Vico she pushed it back revealing a pretty 21 year old with a smooth bald head. "Olimpia" she placed a hand on the Missionara's head giving a blessing. "Thank you for inviting me to your school" once Olimpia had looked up Erin hugged her warmly. "Its my first visit here. I'm keen to have the tour." She glanced up at the school clock-tower, "However that will wait for tomorrow I believe we are already behind schedule"

"Where your holiness is concerned the schedule can change." Olimpia said preparing to push proceedings back for a while.

"No...no." Erin smiled as she began offering blessings to the gaggle of students and their guests who were now gathering. "I'm here for a few days. I've plenty of time. Beside I'd like to get to know some of your students." She recognised Lilias who was holding her guitar, the singer was a student at the Cenneg Chapterhouse were Erin made her HQ. "Lilias I hope we can speak later as I may have a job for you." Erin was making her way towards the Hall's door as members of her Truthsayer detachment made a path for her.

"As you command" Lilias replied nervously.

As Erin reached the Hall it was already filling up with the cream of the guests. As she entered she spotted familiar faces, members of the four Holy Houses greeted her from their seats on the floor of the hall with respectful nods. She recognised a few of the girls from her graduating class who had gone on to become Missionara based here in Aosta and of course despite not worrying too much about the world of Academia she did recognise a few of the speakers. Walking side by side with Olimpia she ascended to the stage at the front of the hall and the room began to hush. Erin took a seat on a type of ornate chair placed in the centre of the stage as various Missionara, Truthsayers, Mothers and Honored Matres, the heads of each branch from each Chapterhouse fanned out either side of her. Olimpia though went and stood by the lecturn. "Please Honoured Guests, be upstanding for the national anthem of Kaitaine, the home of our sacred faith." From the gallery at the back of the hall the wrap of snare drums began soon to be joined by pipes. The hall stood and the Bene Gesserit among them began to sing[1]. While many around the world did not recognise the Theocracy as a nation here on the school grounds Olimpia had her students sing the song every morning as the Theocracies flag was raised. For some of the non-Aostian based Bene Gesserit in the hall it was a rather emotional time as many had never sung the ancient song surrounded by so many of the faithful. Once the pipes had faded and the song had ended Olimpia began to speak. "542 days ago the words we have just sung echoed for the first time through the streets of Seitch. On that day a young Truthsayer stated that the Land of our Mothers spoken about in the song would be " a land dedicated to bettering ourselves and mankind". In order for us to live out that hope for that warrior still fighting today we need to ensure that every one of us continues the work of our ancient Sisters, the work of preparing the world for the time when the 2nd Kwizach Hadrach is needed. We prepare for that moment by gaining knowledge and that is why we are all assembled in this hall, the gain knowledge, to learn more about the world around us and to equip ourselves for the times ahead. I am honoured to host this years Chapterhouse and I welcome the Revererned Mother to Aosta." Olimpia stood aside as Erin stood and made her way forward.

"We are desert creatures" Erin said loudly, "It seems strange then that we are here in Aosta, a land blessed with lush valley's and wonderous vineyards. It seems far from a desert but in many ways it is not. Like the rest of Mundus outside the Theocracy there is another type of desert. Once upon a time explorers would have looked at the desert and wondered what was on the otherside, what secrets, what riches lay on the otherside of the sand ocean. Our ancestors studied the creatures of the desert and became one, they mastered the sands and they learnt the ways of Shai Halud. Now those deserts are conqured by us. The desert that has not been conquered though is knowledge. We live in an age where we think we know so much. Turn on google and everything is at our finger tips. We however stand like Selim Wormrider, gazing at the vast sands before him unsure what exactly is out there. Selim left behind the safety of the grasslands near the coast of Kaitaine and took the steps forward into the unknown. That is now what I want for us in the Sisterhood, we need to branch our exploration of knowledge into new fields. We need Missionara now studying the latest technology, not only confining themselves to the past. We need Missionara to become the cutting edge developers of AI, we need the Missionara to be those leading the fight against Cancer. These and things like them are now our deserts. In much the same way Selim conquered the desert sands and taught us its ways we too shall conquer these 21st Century deserts and we shall do so by embracing those willing to give us knowledge. Today and over the next few days we shall have come before you guests from the Sisterhood, from the Bene Gesserit community and from those outside our faith but who share our love of knowledge. To the Missionara sat in each talk it is your sacred mission to absord all you can. While the Truthsayers have valiantly lead us back to the sands of Seicth it will be the Missionara now who shall lead us forward to become stronger and become wiser. I thank every single one of you who will speak over the next few days for giving up your time and supporting a cause that I know many across Mundus may find controversial. May Shai Halud guide and bless you." She turned and yielded the stage back to Olimpia.

"I am proud to declare our first Aostan Chapterhouse Lectures open and I am very excited to hear our first speaker."



OOC - There is no running order. Whoever it is who goes first just have Olimpia give an introduction, give your speech. I'll try and have some Missionara's ask questions after, then the next person jump in.

GO!!!
 1. Land of my Mothers
we will always be Faithful and loyal to our own country.
In times of danger we will set you free,
Lead you to glory and to victory.

 (Gone is the past let us start anew,
Let this hope of peace always remain
Spirit of Seitch, be strong and true,
 Then your children will smile again.

Hail, Arrakeen to our ancient pray’r,
In this desert Cathedral,
 let our standards bear,
Joining together with on dream to share,

Hope bless the people of this land so fair.
Rise, Kaitaine let your voices ring In this desert Cathedral of our wandering
Who joy and liberty to all will bring,
Come, let your heart with love and courage sing.

Offline KrisNord

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Re: CHapterhouse Lecture Hall 2020
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2020, 05:36:26 PM »
Olimpico Vico turned to the crowd and announced the first speaker. "Please welcome Dr. Konrad Gran, Professor of Alternative Energy at Krokom University."

The Professor took to the stage and began, "Several years ago the Wellow Treaty for the Protection of the Environment was signed. At its heart was a need for the world to begin to turn towards a greater use of alternative energy. Currently that requires us to build wind turbines, harness the power of the sun, even the sea. These though are unpredictable and therefore rendering them useless. One such alternative source though does offer a solution to that problem and that is Hydrogen gas. In theory we should be able to produce a bountiful supply and its combustion leaves us with water. There however are multiple problems. The first of these problems is its cost both in terms of time and resources. We currently sit at a point where we may just be able to produce enough to allow us to use hybrid cars. It also requires the use of electrodes, these are expensive to manufacture as they use rare metals such as the platinum group of metals. On an industrial scale this means the cost of making this gas is restrictive from it being manufactured on a huge scale needed. Now when we add into the equation that a good amount of hydrogen is used on processes such as welding and even ballooning. To acquire the amounts of hydrogen we use in 2020 we still utilise a large amount of fossil fuels infact production of hydrogen is responsible for CO2 emissions of around 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.[1]. As the demand for hydrogen increases so too will the production of CO2. While we may all feel better about ourselves driving around in cars pumping out only drinking water the amount of CO2 created in getting that fuel to us is not solving the problem.

This situation however is now about to change. We are standing on the edge of a Hydrogen production boom. In recent months our university has been exploring removing electrodes from the method used to produce hydrogen and replacing them with nanocages.[2]. In these tests that we have run we have built a cage made of a composite of platinum and nickel. This creates a much large surface area than traditional electrodes as both the inside and outside of the cage can be submerged in water. This allows the chemical reaction to take place much quicker and therefore produce over a similar time period nearly 17 times as much hydrogen. While the nanocages do cost more to make per production line than a electrode the cost is easily recouped in several ways, first the speeding up of the process allowing much more of the gas to be collected. The second is that the nanocage has a lifetime of some 10 times longer than the traditional electrode. The final benefit to the producer is that the use of a nanocage uses the same amount of electricity as an electrode but the increased amount of hydrogen produced will reduce by many times the amount of CO2 per cubic metre of hydrogen. This use of a new piece of technology is likely to see in effect a huge increase in the amount of hydrogen we have available. This however will not see us all driving hydrogen powered cars by the end of the year. Before that can happen the whole infrastructure of our society must change. We must find better ways of transporting and storing the gas, replace our petrol stations with hydrogen ones and of course we have issue of its flammability. These are barriers that will be overcome just as the issue of the electrode is on the verge of being.

Another way that hydrogen may be the future is that it can be used not just as a fuel source but also as a fuel store. As we begin to make more and more of our electricity by green methods there will soon come a time when many nations produce an excess of electricity. Take for example nations like Nya Åland who are capable of producing all day round electricity by geothermal energy. At night when the demand for electricity is less a solution may be to dump the excess into hydrogen production, the same could be said for nations with developing wave power, hydro-electric dams and even some nations use of solar energy could outstrip their demand as the technology develops. Take the example of Zimalia and the Hagalhi Dam project, during late nights there is perhaps of the possibility of them dumping their excess production into hydrogen manufacture. In this way we do not need to produce large numbers of batteries to store electric we can utilise hydrogen as a means of producing more electricity when demand is raising. This newly produced hydrogen can be used in almost identical ways as traditional gas, even heating our homes and there lies its strength as we improve the efficiency of its manufacture. That day however is still a long way off however a hydrogen based economy is perhaps now the future rather than one of large battery cells charged through green energy.

It is our hope over the next few years at Krokom to continue experiments with nanocages and the use of the Nya Åland geothermal energy to see if we can produce an entirely carbon free settlement showcasing the ways we can remove our carbon footprint entirely. We look forward to welcoming you there in the coming years. Thank you for your time."
 1. International Energy Agency figures. This is the equivalent of all the CO2 produced by the UK and Luxembourg
 2. based upon International Journal of Hydrogen Energy Volume 42, Issue 20, 18 May 2017, Pages 14166-14180

Offline Markus

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The shifting powers in international relations of Mundus
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2020, 10:37:36 AM »
Ayatollah Azad Arak, Professor at Djerb Manist University, took the stage next:



"Since the fall of the USR, Mundus has functioned under an international system devised and policed by the G5 countries: East Moreland, UC, Achkaerin, Rokkenjima and Tytor. They are major contributors to the current international treaties and organizations that seek to establish order in Mundus. For years a nation emerging from isolation had few options in Mundus' international relations: it would have to conform to the G5 order imposed or face ostracization or even worse consequences. Faced with only these two choices most nations chose to submit, even if sometimes grudgingly, in order to preserve the security and prosperity of their nations.

In recent years that trend is changing as power and influence on the world stage seems to no longer be a monopoly of the G5 countries. There are several reasons why this is happening:
•   The Tamora's emergence from isolation with its particular institutions that have raised the ire of the G5 has not submitted to the will of G5 despite immense pressure to do so. That combined with the excellent cooperation between Tamora and Royal Seleucid has created an environment in Midaranye that encouraged other nations with different values than the G5 to emerge from isolation and engage on the world stage: Clysperis, Waddan, Abuqiya, Pramoria.
•   The creation of regional blocks such as SANE has shown that neighboring countries when working together can become wield more power and influence than the sum of its parts. SANE has taken a totally different approach than Midaranye in choosing cooperation with G5 and its imposed international order rather than challenge it directly. This way SANE has managed to successfully compete for influence in its region without coming into direct conflict with the G5.
•   The aspiration of nations such as Lakhzovia to exert influence in their region and become the dominant power in Aranye peninsula/ Something that is not possible in the current system or world affairs.
•   Seaforth's withdrawal from international affairs and the complete collapse of Rokkenjima's influence on the world stage has weakened the G5. Rokkenjima case is especially dramatic where despite having huge advantages such as having official languages the two most spoken languages in Mundus: Latin and English, an oversized navy, more overseas military than any country on Mundus, an opulent society, years of active presence on the international stage and a self-described great diplomatic corp they have lost the competition with SANE, Soleimani, Fleur, Josai, Lakhzovia, Heyra and other regional actors because they have failed to adapt their foreign policy to the current state of affairs in Mundus. One Tamoran analyst has described Rokkenjima as stuck in the cold war mentality of the USR era.
•   The mostly hostile approach G5 have towards Midaranye has created what the recent L’Agence Benjamin-Catherine 2019 assessment report on soft/hard power has described as "a black hole" in terms of influence for the G5 allowing the nations to function unconstrained by the dictates of the G5.

A special note should be given to the approach East Moreland has taken to TUNA by which they have managed to coop the organization and bring it under their sphere of influence rather than antagonize it. A mix of royal marriages in the case of Lodja, good use of common religious beliefs in the case of Bakkermaya and the careful and continuous fostering of good bilateral relations with the UC has made TUNA from a potential competitor into a simple tool to expand East Moreland’s influence.

The rise of a multipolar Mundus has great benefits: it's more equitable as it allows more than one view point in terms of what is right and wrong on the world stage, it give nations choices in foreign relations and spreads the benefits of globalization to more than the G5 nations. However, critics of the emerging multipolar Mundus say that such a system leaves Mundus vulnerable to aggressive superpowers such as the former USR claiming that a multipolar Mundus would have been less likely to join forces against the USR, that terrorism is likely to increase as the tensions between the various poles of influence in Mundus might lead to a suspension in cooperation to stop terrorism and an overall increase in military spending leaving other areas underfunded.

Are the critics right or are these just excuses meant to encourage the perpetuation of the current world order? I will that question open for you to think about.

Thank you. "