Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

[Victor_D]

(...)
But exceptions may exist. While Loroi females as a whole might not feel the instinctive need to safeguard and protect human men, Beryl for example did warm up towards Alex, though in typical Listel fashion it might be more a meeting of intellects, and the two of them did sort of see eye to eye on this part.

Well, depending on the Loroi sex drive (AFAIK access to males has to be earned in Loroi society; these are mating encounters, evidently aimed at producing offspring, but I guess it's not unpleasant), they might either disregard human males completely (instinctively viewing them as weak and useless and alien), or they may see them as a source of cheap unregulated "bed fun", without the risk of conceiving some weird mutant children. I picture it a bit as human sailors on leave; there is a reason port cities historically were full of brothels. Loroi female sex drive may be naturally more repressed, but what is to say they wouldn't be tempted to have a bit of fun, especially if they don't need to work for years to earn it (as I imagine human males would not mind ).

[Dahak]

Loroi ships could be so nicely designed because they are likely the last home their Loroi crew will ever know.

I know that Human military planers would do so too, if they could afford it. For morale reasons.
But also Human planners keep in their head that the ship in a war will likely mean that it is home for the soldiers for the remainders of their life.
But, more space means being a bigger target. Your shields stretch thinner, and the chance for your armour to leak air grows.

Tempest is 750m long with a crew of 800. Bellarmine is 190m long with a crew of 80. That measn even if Tempest didn't have a significantly wider profile than Bellarmine it would be over 60 times the volume and therefore likely mass. Based on their comparitive shapes Tempest looks to be closer to 90 to 120 tiems the volume.

Which implies Bellarmine was somewhere around 10-15Ktons mass assuming Human and Loroi Spaceship tech is of a similar average density.

Loroi are roughly the same size as Humans so even if Tempest had 5 times as much space for living spaces per crew member it would be using a lower fraction of its volume than Bellarmine.

[Blu3wolf]

Tempest is 750m long with a crew of 800. Bellarmine is 190m long with a crew of 80. That measn even if Tempest didn't have a significantly wider profile than Bellarmine it would be over 60 times the volume and therefore likely mass. Based on their comparitive shapes Tempest looks to be closer to 90 to 120 tiems the volume.

Which implies Bellarmine was somewhere around 10-15Ktons mass assuming Human and Loroi Spaceship tech is of a similar average density.

Loroi are roughly the same size as Humans so even if Tempest had 5 times as much space for living spaces per crew member it would be using a lower fraction of its volume than Bellarmine.

Not necessarily very safe assumptions, there.

[Dahak]

Tempest is 750m long with a crew of 800. Bellarmine is 190m long with a crew of 80. That measn even if Tempest didn't have a significantly wider profile than Bellarmine it would be over 60 times the volume and therefore likely mass. Based on their comparitive shapes Tempest looks to be closer to 90 to 120 tiems the volume.

Which implies Bellarmine was somewhere around 10-15Ktons mass assuming Human and Loroi Spaceship tech is of a similar average density.

Loroi are roughly the same size as Humans so even if Tempest had 5 times as much space for living spaces per crew member it would be using a lower fraction of its volume than Bellarmine.

Not necessarily very safe assumptions, there.

What's the second assumption? Average spaceship density being similar isn't that unsafe and is irelevant to the final conclusion. Sizes and crews are in the ship lists. Tempest has a larger average crossectional area to length ration than Bellarmine so doing the numbers on the assumption they have identical crossectional area to length ratios is conservative (Which gives Tempest having just over 61.5 times the volume of Bellarmine).

over 61.5 times the volume and 10 times the crew means the total crew spaces need to be more than 6x the volume per crewmember to take up a higher percentage of the ships volume in total. So 5x makes crew spaces take up a smaller percentage of volume of the Hull.

I'm not saying whether I think the Loroi do assign more space on a proportional basis to the habitable bits of the ship than the Humans, just that they have a lot of margin to play with since their ships have significantly fewer crewbeings per hundred cubic meters of hull volume, but it looks like they don't need to to get a ship that feels more spacious and it is quite possible they assign a smaller percentage of the hull to crew accessable spaces and get that feeling. Because they don't have as proportionally high crews.

It doesn't say anything about how those spaces are divided up, the Loroi could well be assigning similar volumes for the crews bunk spaces and using the extra volume for rooms with giant statues and meditation gardens.

So what unsafe assumptions am I making?

[Southern Cross]

You haven't factored the Loroi's force field generators into your calculations. That's something the Bellarmine doesn't have.

[Hālian]

The gray areas on the southern edge of the map of Mestirot — are those sea ice or another continent or?

[Arioch]

The gray areas on the southern edge of the map of Mestirot — are those sea ice or another continent or?

Ice.

[Dahak]

You haven't factored the Loroi's force field generators into your calculations. That's something the Bellarmine doesn't have.

Not noticably something that is considered usable crew space and thus doesn't affect the conclusion. Unless you are suggesting the Loroi use them to extend atmosphere over the outer hull so they can hold parades and meetings outside under the stars (which wouldmeans they have less need for large meeting spaces inside.).

The conclusion being that the Loroi can assign a smaller percentage of their hull to crew and still have more space per person because Loroi warships have a lower crew per volume than the Bellarmine does.

I.e. It would appear that for two identical sized ships a Loroi warship would have rather a lot less crew thean a Human scoutship.

[Hālian]

You say in Dramatis Personae that Torret Bilosin is the thirty-fourth great-niece of Azerein Ramarinzil. Do you mean to say that she's a 34th-generation descendant of hers, or that she's the 34th of Ramarinzil's great-nieces?

[dragoongfa]

You say in Dramatis Personae that Torret Bilosin is the thirty-fourth great-niece of Azerein Ramarinzil. Do you mean to say that she's a 34th-generation descendant of hers, or that she's the 34th of Ramarinzil's great-nieces?

Considering the access to males scheme the later is the only possible explanation. Even if the Emperor herself could get unfettered access for most of her life that doesn't mean that all of her descendants would get the same access quick enough for them to crap out 34 generations in less than 400 years.

[Arioch]

You say in Dramatis Personae that Torret Bilosin is the thirty-fourth great-niece of Azerein Ramarinzil. Do you mean to say that she's a 34th-generation descendant of hers, or that she's the 34th of Ramarinzil's great-nieces?

The latter; Ashrain's grandfather (Dawnstar) is Ramarinzil's nephew. I think we would call her a great grand-niece, but the Loroi have a more complicated system; there are lots of nieces.

[Hālian]

You say in Dramatis Personae that Torret Bilosin is the thirty-fourth great-niece of Azerein Ramarinzil. Do you mean to say that she's a 34th-generation descendant of hers, or that she's the 34th of Ramarinzil's great-nieces?

The latter; Ashrain's grandfather (Dawnstar) is Ramarinzil's nephew. I think we would call her a great grand-niece, but the Loroi have a more complicated system; there are lots of nieces.

I've only ever heard “great-great-niece”.

Also: Are there any civilizations on the “other” side of the Ninnil Gap? What about up-arm? If so, would it be possible for you to tell us something about them? Pretty please?

[saint of m]

Most of the combatants seem to have a firm control of their emotions (or at least have a decent Pokerface). Is this typical of all the Loroi, this is them in a high strung position near a battlefield, or when we see more civilian Loroi they will be more open with their emotional displays.

[Arioch]

Also: Are there any civilizations on the “other” side of the Ninnil Gap? What about up-arm? If so, would it be possible for you to tell us something about them? Pretty please?

There are civilizations in both directions, but there's not much I can say about them at present.

Most of the combatants seem to have a firm control of their emotions (or at least have a decent Pokerface). Is this typical of all the Loroi, this is them in a high strung position near a battlefield, or when we see more civilian Loroi they will be more open with their emotional displays.

What sort of emotional display did you have in mind? I wouldn't expect veteran crew (human or Loroi) to burst into tears in the middle of a fight.

[Mackus]

What sort of emotional display did you have in mind? I wouldn't expect veteran crew (human or Loroi) to burst into tears in the middle of a fight.

He probably meant minor stuff like occasional clenching of teeth or fist. Involuntary muscle reactions that would betray inner tension.

[saint of m]

They also tend to have a general look of disinterist. With the exception of the one red head and still storm on the bridge (both looked irritated), most don't seem rto react to things. Even on the elevator both kinda saw our favorite unsheathed chucking Jardin as if it was uneventful. Its almost vulcanish in parts, that's all.

[thicket]

in 113 (yay! new comic), Spiral says "it was all bleeding-like red..." now it sounds to me like she was surprised at the color? maybe Loroi blood isn't red? what color is Loroi blood?

[Arioch]

in 113 (yay! new comic), Spiral says "it was all bleeding-like red..." now it sounds to me like she was surprised at the color? maybe Loroi blood isn't red? what color is Loroi blood?

Blue.

[GabrielGABFonseca]

Arioch, first let me congratulate you on your work. I've known Outsider for around what, five years now? And I must say, from all the webcomics I've read, this is definitely one of my top 3 all-time favourites.

I love the story, the characters, and the world you've built. And if you'll allow me, I'd love to make some questions about said world!
I apologise if some of these have already been asked before, but I'm still grinding my way through this thread (I'm currently at page 34)...

Ok, so here we go!

First, I'd like to ask, now that a significant fraction of the main cast (judging from the Character Mosaic art) is united on a shuttle for the next 5.824 hours (19200 Solon) and then 20 days more on Clearbrook, what are your plans for the comic? Sitcom, or more of a Romcom?

Ok, ok; jokes aside now, I'm rather curious about the meaning of the text below the Loroi Emblem, as seen on page 50, at the right side of Beryl's head. My attempts to read it have been rather fruitless - I could only make out the third word with absolute clarity: "Community". I also believe that the last word means "Rage", but I'm not 100% sure of it.

--//--

The second question I'd like to ask regards the holographic battle map on page 83. Actually, I have two questions about this map; the first one being why would the Loroi be using the astrological symbol of the Cancer constellation as the symbol to represent the enemy advance on this battle? If there's one thing I've learned after reading the Insider three times over, is that you don't do stuff without a purpose. There must certainly be a reason behind this, you surely wouldn't just slap a symbol native of Earth on a Loroi battle map!

The second second question, then, would be regarding what is written on the green arrow - if my Trade doesn't fail me, it reads "diorar boiner" on said arrow, meaning "enemy group", correct? If that's the case, then I believe there might be a typo - the text on the page reads "diorar", while the Lexicon has "doirar" listed as the word for 'enemy'. I wonder which one is actually the correct spelling?

--//--

My third and final question (for now! ) regards the Trade language. I've been struggling to translate to trade the phrase "Heavenly Messenger of War from the Dead River". The process I use to translate phrases is to break it down to individual words, and then assemble those broken down bits, with their translated equivalents into the fully translated phrase, like this:

[Heavenly] [Messenger] [of] [War] [From] [the] [Dead] [River]

Working with the words available in the Lexicon, what I currently have is the following:

[Heavenly] [Messenger] [of] [War] [From] [the] [Dead] [River]
[Sizet (noun)] [Detobodí (A messenger is an 'announcer' or 'proclaimer' after all...)] [--N/A--] [Nen] [Mi] [--N/A--] [Tonon] [Sarad (A 'stream' or 'brook' is not as impressive as a river, but it'll do)]

Now, I rearrange the words to properly follow Trade grammar and modify the appropriate words. The first difficulty I've faced is how to convert "Sizet", a noun, into an adjective. I've decided to simply go with "from heaven" to simplify things. The second difficulty is, again, how to turn "Tonon", a noun, into an adjective. Now; the suffix -das allows one to turn a verb into a noun or adjective - to use it to turn a noun into and adjective is a very wonky and quirky move, but... it's the best I can do. So the final product, I believe, would be:

"Nen detobodí sizet mi mé tonondas sarad mi".

Where the underlined part is the subject, the italic is the object and the bold is the verb.

[Nen] [Detobodí] [Sizet] [Mi] [Mé] [Tonondas] [Sarad] [Mi].

Is this translation correct, or do you think I need to go back to the Scout Corps' Trade 101 course and give this a try again next semester?

--//--

Thank you for taking time to read this! Keep up the good work.

[Arioch]

Ok, ok; jokes aside now, I'm rather curious about the meaning of the text below the Loroi Emblem, as seen on page 50, at the right side of Beryl's head. My attempts to read it have been rather fruitless - I could only make out the third word with absolute clarity: "Community". I also believe that the last word means "Rage", but I'm not 100% sure of it.

The passage is the second half of the Loroi motto "Rozain ronnei pelor dezon. Moriet tonirrir lishradil dezon," which translates as "Victory from duty only. Ascension through community only."

Which is probably grammatically incorrect, now that I think about it. These phrases were written a long time ago, before Trade had a distinct grammar.

The second question I'd like to ask regards the holographic battle map on page 83. Actually, I have two questions about this map; the first one being why would the Loroi be using the astrological symbol of the Cancer constellation as the symbol to represent the enemy advance on this battle? If there's one thing I've learned after reading the Insider three times over, is that you don't do stuff without a purpose. There must certainly be a reason behind this, you surely wouldn't just slap a symbol native of Earth on a Loroi battle map!

Well, I did. I grabbed an alien-looking glyph and stuck it in there, without being aware that it's the symbol of the Crab. Random irony.

Officially, it's an alien glyph which just happens to be the same as one of our symbols. It was bound to happen.

The second second question, then, would be regarding what is written on the green arrow - if my Trade doesn't fail me, it reads "diorar boiner" on said arrow, meaning "enemy group", correct? If that's the case, then I believe there might be a typo - the text on the page reads "diorar", while the Lexicon has "doirar" listed as the word for 'enemy'. I wonder which one is actually the correct spelling?

It's quite possible that I misspelled it. It's easy to do when writing backwards.

My third and final question (for now! ) regards the Trade language. I've been struggling to translate to trade the phrase "Heavenly Messenger of War from the Dead River". The process I use to translate phrases is to break it down to individual words, and then assemble those broken down bits, with their translated equivalents into the fully translated phrase, like this:

[Heavenly] [Messenger] [of] [War] [From] [the] [Dead] [River]

Working with the words available in the Lexicon, what I currently have is the following:

[Heavenly] [Messenger] [of] [War] [From] [the] [Dead] [River]
[Sizet (noun)] [Detobodí (A messenger is an 'announcer' or 'proclaimer' after all...)] [--N/A--] [Nen] [Mi] [--N/A--] [Tonon] [Sarad (A 'stream' or 'brook' is not as impressive as a river, but it'll do)]

Now, I rearrange the words to properly follow Trade grammar and modify the appropriate words. The first difficulty I've faced is how to convert "Sizet", a noun, into an adjective. I've decided to simply go with "from heaven" to simplify things. The second difficulty is, again, how to turn "Tonon", a noun, into an adjective. Now; the suffix -das allows one to turn a verb into a noun or adjective - to use it to turn a noun into and adjective is a very wonky and quirky move, but... it's the best I can do. So the final product, I believe, would be:

"Nen detobodí sizet mi mé tonondas sarad mi".

Where the underlined part is the subject, the italic is the object and the bold is the verb.

[Nen] [Detobodí] [Sizet] [Mi] [Mé] [Tonondas] [Sarad] [Mi].

Is this translation correct, or do you think I need to go back to the Scout Corps' Trade 101 course and give this a try again next semester?

In Trade, you can use any noun or prepositional phrase as a modifier for a noun just by placing it in front of the noun; no conjugation needed. This can get ambiguous if you stack multiple nouns in this way (such as with "death river heaven war herald"), so I think the clearest way to phrase it would be using prepositions thus:

"war herald of heaven from death river"
[death] [river] [from] [heaven] [of] [war] [herald]
Tonon taton ronnei sizet mi nen mallas

This is just a fragment of a sentence with no verb and so no need for subject or object markers.