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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:17 pm
by Hālian
Do the letters of the Trade alphabet have names? If so, what are they?

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 11:21 pm
by Arioch
Hālian wrote:Do the letters of the Trade alphabet have names? If so, what are they?
Not formal names exactly (like "aleph" or "alpha"), but they do have vocalizations similar to those we use in English:

P - "po"
Z - "zo"
E - "eh"
G - "go"
T - "to"
A - "ah"
R - "ro"
M - "mo"
L - "lo"
O - "oh"
S - "so"
SH - "sho"
D - "do"
B - "bo"
I - "ih"
N - "no"

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 10:21 pm
by CF2
How do Loroi come by their names? Given the lack of a human family structure, is it still the parents giving young Loroi their names, or is it something they choose for themselves at a certain point?

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 10:59 pm
by Arioch
CF2 wrote:How do Loroi come by their names? Given the lack of a human family structure, is it still the parents giving young Loroi their names, or is it something they choose for themselves at a certain point?
Spoken names are formally assigned upon graduation from the warrior trials, but these are often based on nicknames that the children earned earlier.

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 12:30 pm
by DevilDalek
So a sort of formalisation of school nick names?

I can see that having a rich thread of stories through a Loroi's life.. do the names change at all? say a formal re naming to acknowledge some heroic action? possibly add ons to the name, similar to how many of us have middle names, but don't use them unless in formal conversation?

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 10:20 pm
by icekatze
hi hi

If memory serves, don't telepathic names and spoken names differ? It's been a while, but I thought that a lot of Loroi, especially those not in the military caste, don't end up with spoken names in the same way.

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 2:25 pm
by DevilDalek
icekatze wrote:I thought that a lot of Loroi, especially those not in the military caste, don't end up with spoken names in the same way.
Yes I was wondering about this to, I can see how Fireblade would have got her name in some form of warrior trials.
(Beryl:- actually she was so terrible at wilderness survival she managed to set fire to her own survival knife)

But names like Beryl, from the research caste, would that be from research papers? (Use of beryl and its meaning as a religious artefact in primitive species for instance) or more personal level things, like she really like shiny things..

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 8:12 pm
by CF2
What is the main manner in which Loroi research is performed? Are they strictly bent on rediscovery of the knowledge the former empire had? Do they have both their own avenues of research and ancient tech research?

Also, would you describe the Loroi as imaginatively impaired by their views on truth and fiction?

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 6:42 pm
by Arioch
Spoken names are not as big a deal to the Loroi as they are to us, as they are secondary to telepathic names. Telepathic names are based in part on the individual's telepathic signature, and they do evolve over time.
CF2 wrote:What is the main manner in which Loroi research is performed? Are they strictly bent on rediscovery of the knowledge the former empire had? Do they have both their own avenues of research and ancient tech research?
Loroi use the same kind of scientific techniques that we do. Having existing examples to follow just helps a lot.
CF2 wrote:Also, would you describe the Loroi as imaginatively impaired by their views on truth and fiction?
If you're drawing a connection to science proficiency, I'm not sure the two are linked. I think that science often has more to do with logic than with imagination. Even in those cases where scientific advancement is aided by "thinking outside the box," I'm not sure fiction is a strong help. Contrary to popular belief, Star Trek was not responsible for the creation of modern computers and cell phones (though it probably spurred interest in science in general).

The Loroi are not very good at science, but this has more to do with their rigid customs and insular social makeup.

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:39 am
by Jayngfet
I would say there are a lot of inventions that only exist because the inventor heard about it in fiction first. Even if you discount those, the word only gets out as fast as it does in a lot of cases because "Remember X from Y, it's totally real now!", which will usually gather attention long before a viable model is around.

If it's not a sole or even major contributor, it's certainly conductive to ideas getting around and into the public consciousness.

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:12 am
by Arioch
Jayngfet wrote:I would say there are a lot of inventions that only exist because the inventor heard about it in fiction first.
Can you think of an example?

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:26 am
by Krulle
Hoverskateboards (YT link)
They're energetically so impractical, that the only reason they exist is the film "Back to the Future".

Oh wait, he said "read".... :(

Then there are also the Hoverbikes, and flying cars, but then those came to existance because there's always a weirdo combining things. This is not a result of "cool fiction, I'm going to build that!".

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:35 am
by Jayngfet
Simon Lake developed a lot of the technology for the modern submarine after reading a bunch of Jules Verne books. That same author's books also inspiring a lot of work on the modern helicopter by Igor Sikorsky. Then you have Goddard's explicit influence from H.G. Wells, as well as numerous other scientists and inventors for the same, and so on and so forth at every step of the process. This all being well documented with statements from the inventors themselves and their patents being in the books.

You can get pedantic if you want and say they didn't technically invent the submarine because the concept had been around in a rougher, less widely used, and less viable format, same for helicopters, rockets, atomic power, and so forth. But at that point you're just nitpicking past what the actual documentation shows. I usually think inspiration is a loaded concept that people put too much stock into, but you've severley downplayed what's more or less a matter of record. The fact is that people, especially at a young age before their careers are set, are very impressionable, and people have devoted a lot of time and energy towards specializations and educations for far less.

Even if you assume someone will eventually come along and invent the same thing anyway, or the same person would just get the idea at another time, that just means you're adding extra steps at every point in the process. If Goddard doesn't build his rocket until many years later because he didn't get the idea where he did, and then Slizard doesn't work out his issues for the same reason, and then every subsequent scientist never saw Flash Gordon or Star Trek or whatever their particular programme was, the cumulative effect essentially sets the technological timeline back by many decades, simply because of the fact that suddenly there are literal thousands of steps in advancement that either get delayed or simply don't happen.

You don't even need to look very far. If you're telling me NASA's new generation of gold trimmed humanoid robots was made in a vaccuum, with their mission patch that's just the death star and a bunch of droids in a millennium falcon, a chief technologist who began his career by making explicit that he wanted robots like those made real, and a statement that boils down to "this is where the inspiration comes from", I'm not really sure what to say.

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 9:01 am
by bunnyboy
New innovations come in two ways.
- You have a dream or goal you want to reach.
- You have a new idea, tool or technology to play with.

The stories are similar, but they aren't restricted by with isn't yet possible, so they get big headstart.

So scientist and inventors are developing "today" but writers and artist are developing "tomorrow".
And they both inspire new science and fiction.

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 9:23 pm
by CF2
Given that we're not going to be visiting Earth or Human territory with the Loroi in Outsider, what sort of foods native to Earth would the Loroi find inedible and which would be instant favorites? I imagine a full list would be too long so just a few key examples or notable exceptions, would be fun to know.

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 11:41 pm
by Arioch
There are Perrein cuisine items that many non-Perrein Loroi consider inedible, so it has a lot to do with cultural perspective. Especially since Loroi digestive systems are very robust.

Many styles of Loroi cuisine are very bland, so very spicy food would probably either be a delight -- or a horror -- to Loroi depending on the individual. I can easily imagine some Loroi as not being able to tolerate any "heat."

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 2:42 am
by CF2
How robust are we talking? Inexpertly-prepared-fugu-is-a-walk-in-the-park robust? Or deep-fried-butter-for-every-meal-sounds-fun robust? Is it just that every space elf comes equipped with a full compliment of enzymes for any task, or is it more that nothing escapes the churning maelstrom at the core of the blue devourers?

Also, how much more food experimentation is Alex in store for?

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 5:22 am
by Jayngfet
I think the most relevant question there is exactly how much do former Soia planets even have in terms of flavor variation in terms of what's even available.

The whole empire mostly farms one grain type and if what we see Alex eating is any indication there isn't much processing or flavoring going on by default, since the only rations we see mostly look like fruit, some berries, and a blue thing with a core that makes it look like it also grew there. The only things that look like they could be processed are the brown rounded thing in the smaller container and the little rings, but there's no guarantees there. The rounded thing looks like it could be bread but given my understanding of how bread is usually packaged and how much Loroi are described as eating that doesn't really seem likley. There's too much of it unless it's meant for groups and making something round for a square container is an inefficient use of space, especially when you presumably need to cram a lot of it in for rations in a closed system. When you have a limited diet engineered to be edible across species and your preparation doesn't look too involved you'll have a limited amount of flavors as a matter of course. I could be wrong but that was always my take going by the cover of chapter 2.

Perrien is the exception, but Perrien is also more earth like in that it has a wide variety of naturally developed plants and animals rather than a few microbes and/or artificial organisims and their descendants.

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 8:30 am
by Victor_D
And BTW, how common are habitable worlds in Loroi space, or the Local Bubble in general? (In this setting.) By habitable, I mean the narrow definition of the term (breathable atmosphere, liquid water, biosphere, survivable by Human/Loroi standards). Given the many precursor empires and their terraforming projects, I'd assume there are many (certainly many times more than could be expected naturally), but I could be wrong. On the other hands, the Humans only found one (Aldea), while the rest are usually uninhabitable by unprotected humans (usually Arean deserts).

Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 8:43 pm
by Arioch
CF2 wrote:How robust are we talking? Inexpertly-prepared-fugu-is-a-walk-in-the-park robust? Or deep-fried-butter-for-every-meal-sounds-fun robust? Is it just that every space elf comes equipped with a full compliment of enzymes for any task, or is it more that nothing escapes the churning maelstrom at the core of the blue devourers?
The Soia-Liron biochemistry is very flexible in terms of this kinds of things it can digest and derive nourishment from, and so Loroi are less likely to be poisoned by an exotic food item than most humans, but it's a matter of context and degree. Many Perrein animals are quite poisonous, and some Perrein food items are toxic to Loroi if not properly prepared.

As Jayngfet mentions, the colonial monoculture of Loroi food may mean that many Loroi will be more inclined to react negatively to exotic foods, even if they are less likely to be actually poisoned by them.
CF2 wrote:Also, how much more food experimentation is Alex in store for?
The subject will be brought up again.
Victor_D wrote:And BTW, how common are habitable worlds in Loroi space, or the Local Bubble in general? (In this setting.) By habitable, I mean the narrow definition of the term (breathable atmosphere, liquid water, biosphere, survivable by Human/Loroi standards). Given the many precursor empires and their terraforming projects, I'd assume there are many (certainly many times more than could be expected naturally), but I could be wrong. On the other hands, the Humans only found one (Aldea), while the rest are usually uninhabitable by unprotected humans (usually Arean deserts).
They're certainly much more common in the Union/Hierarchy/Periphery/Nissek region than they are in the Great Wasteland that is human territory, for the reasons you mention. I'd say they're still relatively uncommon, but it's a large area with thousands of star systems, so there are a lot of them.