Easter egg in 'Societates'?

So I'm rereading 'Societates'. About the Tytalus primi,and about how the Tytalus pick a side based on 'personal choice or whim' and proceed to defend it in earnest, and how the other Houses find this completely incomprehensible...
... and how they use green and purple badges to distinguish each other....
... and I finally realize just what that reminds me of.

"Green must fight purple. Purple must fight green. Is the only way." The Green and Purple Drazi from Babylon 5's "Geometry of Shadows". A deadly conflict, incomprehensible to outsiders, which is triggered by pulling bits of green or purple cloth at random out of a box.

Easter egg or coincidence? Discuss amongst yourselves. (I am getting a little verklempt :smiley: )

While I recognize your reference and I giggled a bit until people started looking at me, I think the Greeks and Romans had similar instances of such arbitrary choosing of sides by color and then heavy wagering and arguing would begin.

I am certain Rome had something akin to it, as Marcus Aurelius mentions it in his writings.

Though it is suspect that they chose THOSE two colors, which were specific only to that fairest of sci-fi fare.

PS. I believe in some city states in Italy, they have neighborhood battles and races where in the neighborhood colors are given out and then costumes made to match the color. Then the contests begin. I actually am trying to incorporate it into a one on one background story I am trying to play out with a TT friend.

I have seen very few episodes of Babylon 5. But I did see that episode! It was a pretty good one too, and had deep philosophical implications concerning how arbitrary some conflicts may be.
But for a Tytalus magus, all conflict is healty and a means of promoting growth :wink:

I believe it evokes the Nika Riots (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots). Hulikang and Nike in RoP:I were probably also involved in the Nika Riots.

(In TV Sci-fi, the first reference I know of is The Tomorrow People "The Blue and the Green").

I believe the original version (that inspired the B5 one as the Roman chariot teams (4 colours, of which green and purple are the 2 I remember). [My history teacher would be shocked that I remember that one thing, as it was a throwaway comment not on the curriculum].

As an aside, my favourite part from that episode :
"Rules of combat older than contact with other races. Do not mention aliens. Rules change... caught up in committee. Not go through yet."
"Yeah, bureaucracy, tell me about it."

For those who've never seen it, there's the good bits up on youtube, try Green vs Purple.

K.

not only that, if you look in TL, you'll find that the Prima of House Guernicus, is a Miss Jane Marple clone

In reference to that, ims I have an NPC - Hercule of Jerbiton the Jerbiton Quaesitor, with his Companion, Sir Hastings.

There is a cool Dr Who novel in which the Miss Marple character has the subconcious power to make those around her act out their homocidal impulses. Story Flaw?

Indeed. her and jessica Fletcher are 2 incantations of the character that I would HATE to have visiting, since someone would be about to die. They are worse than banshees.

Xavi

I think all the PCs have it by default. :smiley:

Yep. That's just "Being a player character."

OK, then: genre trope as Covenant Hook?

It might work in either way. :slight_smile:
But I think it would be better for a character because such things might be boring on the long term.

Greater Malediction + Free Expression.

"Murder", she wrote...
... and an innocent shepherd three miles away keeled over, dead as a doornail.

Certainly in my group the default option is "kill it!", but our old 4th ed. game had a standard flaw for all player characters... overconfident.
I think we ended up with one PC without it, and she was a healer maga.
K.

Maybe an easter egg in Against the Dark: There's a plot hook named "A Killer of the Road", which made me think of The Doors.
Of course, this might just be coincidence :smiley:

It's based on a Rutger Hauer film, called The Hitcher, as I recall...

Don't eat the chips.

(The name is based on one of the Archetypes in "Unknown Armies".)