Re: How many Alpha line individuals are in the RF systems? | |
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by Annachie » Sun Dec 28, 2014 5:29 am | |
Annachie
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Weren't the Dertwilers described as Star Lines?
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You are so going to die. :p ~~~~ runsforcelery ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ still not dead. |
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Re: How many Alpha line individuals are in the RF systems? | |
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by kzt » Sun Dec 28, 2014 6:34 am | |
kzt
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I think I vaguely recall that alphas, gamas etc are all star lines.
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Re: How many Alpha line individuals are in the RF systems? | |
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by Brigade XO » Sun Dec 28, 2014 10:38 am | |
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We have seen several references to the Long Term Planning Board but have no idea who makes up that Board or anything other than they make the choices on what is done to the various lines, at least the Star Lines. We see that Albrect was paired up with his wife and while we don't actualy know if they have any children (other than "his" sons who we find are clones).
So who is creating/maintaining the Detweiler Alpha Line? |
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Re: How many Alpha line individuals are in the RF systems? | |
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by JeffEngel » Sun Dec 28, 2014 11:28 am | |
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New spouses, and adopted children, can always be introduced as "liberated slaves". Manpower's slaves are all, after all, results of the same general breeding program; if they look for distinctive genetic markers (without knowing too-too-much to look for), they'll find exactly that. That would help cement the RF system's anti-Mesan creds. |
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Re: How many Alpha line individuals are in the RF systems? | |
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by JohnRoth » Sun Dec 28, 2014 7:52 pm | |
JohnRoth
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Interesting thread. A few observations.
There's probably some mechanism that makes the core of an "alpha line," etc breed true, in the same sense that the Meyerdhal modifications and the scrag modifications breed true. They don't mix. We aren't really told what the difference is between the alpha, beta and gamma lines is. They're probably intended for three generic roles, in the same sense as the Hindu role division that's called the caste system, but we don't know that for sure, or what those roles are. I think the "star lines" are highly successful experimental lines that will eventually be merged back into the base, not a separate set of lines that are outside of the alpha, beta, gamma system. To answer the original question, though, I'd say there are no more than a couple of hundred families on a given planet, and probably not that many. The essential issue here is that children have to be examined and tested before they're let into the family secret and issued their Evil Overlord badges and Secret Decoder rings. We know that they've lost their cadre on any number of planets, which suggests that they don't have huge numbers to work with, or at least didn't originally. On the other hand, at least on Mannerheim, they have enough for the officer corps of a fair number of warships, which suggests the higher end of the range. |
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Re: How many Alpha line individuals are in the RF systems? | |
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by SWM » Sun Dec 28, 2014 8:20 pm | |
SWM
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My interpretation of the text is that the "star lines" is a generic term for all alpha, beta, and gamma lines. --------------------------------------------
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Re: How many Alpha line individuals are in the RF systems? | |
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by Weird Harold » Sun Dec 28, 2014 10:21 pm | |
Weird Harold
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I don't think there is any way to quantify the question in hard numbers. If R/W American radicals can be believed, 1% of the population has most of the money and makes (or at least influences) all the decisions. I think 1% is about the minimum required to control a population or government. 5% is probably more likely, although that would probably be mostly beta and gamma types. When you're talking about populations in the billions, even a fractional percentage is more than "a couple of hundred families" unless those "families" are huge clans numbering in the thousands. .
. . Answers! I got lots of answers! (Now if I could just find the right questions.) |
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