munroburton wrote:Relax wrote:Bolded is what I have ALWAYS had a gargantuan problem with. What could possibly motivate them? They have ZERO reason to build. They know virtually nothing about any other star system and even if they were indoctrinated, there is no interaction with any other star system. Unless... , the MALIGN purposefully creates entirely fabricated "news", battles, deaths, etc from outside their star system for why they need to build these giant ship yards.
Of course RFC has also said that the MALIGN living there are not segregated from the slaves, so real information about the outside will filter through, unless we also must postulate that the MALIGN living in Darius know nothing either
The paragraph immediately preceding the two I quoted from MoH says that there has been a lot of lying to Darius' population(star lines included). Three or four generations of workers all know they've been building the infrastructure to support a massive navy as well as build that navy, but they think it's for some defensive purpose.
Who or what they were supposed to be defending against isn't clarified. As you suggest, they might have fabricated an outside universe where, instead of passing the Eridani Edict, other humans are busy carrying out the Dark Forest theory.
It all reminds me of the lies Germany told to its own people and the territories it conquered. Which led to the propaganda air bombings of German occupied territories with leaflets and pamphlets.
Perhaps the worst thing you can do to Darius is dump leaflets and mini video players onto the planet depicting life in the galaxy at large. It would probably do more damage than KEWS. It will probably spark many uprisings of Medusan proportions.