Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thread

Discussion regarding the Outsider webcomic, science, technology and science fiction.

Moderator: Outsider Moderators

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

saint of m wrote:Are The Uniak the only "insectoide" race in their alliance, or do they have fellow bug people s buddies?
The known members of the Umiak Hierarchy are listed here. It's unlikely that any of the other members will ever be discussed.
Jakelope13 wrote:Has there been any discoveries of Soia ruins on worlds that may have, at one point, had an atmosphere? Or were fragments of one of the Soia's "dread-stars" ever been recovered?
It's not clear who the "Soia" were. There are ruins of planetary settlements of four of the five known Soia-Liron races from during the Soia period (there is no planetside evidence of the Loroi until around the time of the fall). No remains of dread-stars have ever been found.

Absalom
Posts: 718
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 4:33 am

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Absalom »

Did races other than the Loroi have legends of dread-stars, or was it only the Loroi?

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

Absalom wrote:Did races other than the Loroi have legends of dread-stars, or was it only the Loroi?
There are similar legends among many different cultures.

halftea
Posts: 23
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 1:03 am

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by halftea »

Ok, in the light of the new wealth of information made available on some of the other secondary and tertiary races in the Outsider-verse, I was hoping we could get a little more information on the relationship between the Historians and the Pol, as well as information about the Pol themselves. Obviously if there are any plot-relevant details feel free to leave it out, but the Insider entry is so tantalizing...

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

halftea wrote:Ok, in the light of the new wealth of information made available on some of the other secondary and tertiary races in the Outsider-verse, I was hoping we could get a little more information on the relationship between the Historians and the Pol, as well as information about the Pol themselves. Obviously if there are any plot-relevant details feel free to leave it out, but the Insider entry is so tantalizing...
Although the existence of the Pol is confirmed by the Historians, they refuse to reveal anything substantive about them, and so there is very little known except rumor. Barsam theorists seem to have got the impression that the Pol are a sentient aquatic Soia-Liron species, but it's not clear where this information came from or how the rumor got started; there is no known archaeological evidence of such a species. The Loroi telepathic rumor mill (which is less prone to unfounded speculation) has a story that goes something like this: when Loroi warships were in Historian territory during the Umiak invasion, the Farseers reported detecting an unfamiliar telepathic signature, indicating an unknown intelligent species. When the matter was brought up with the Historians, the Loroi were told that what they had detected was a species called the Pol, which was under Historian protection. The Historians declined to answer any further questions on the subject.

User avatar
GeoModder
Posts: 1038
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:31 pm

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by GeoModder »

Which begs the question, have Loroi Farseers ever detected a confirmed Historian telepathic signature? ;)
Image

User avatar
Smithy
Posts: 60
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2012 6:10 pm
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Smithy »

In a bit of free time I've managed to claw in recently, I felt like obliging my somewhat "anoraky" tendencies, and scanned through the Umiak lore and technology. I noticed a slight inconstancy however with regards to Umiak plasma weapons. On the warship class page seven plasma focus types are described with Medium range & short range versions of the Heavy, Medium and Light plasma focus plus a PD plasma cannon. The weaps page however only lists five umiak plasma weapons. So I guess I was just curious to whether this is just a mistake being that both pages are time stamped a year apart?

Another curiosity is the Umiak-Morat Blasters which don't appear to be equipped on Umiak ship classes, are those then only normally found on Morat ships, and was it ever the intention for morat ships to be seen? Also with regards to the vast number of varieties of umiak torpedoes, which logistically would present a considerable challenge (real life example would be for instance that British, US and most NATO infantry deploy with the FN minimi to keep all rounds in the platoon 5.56mm, and try to avoid 7.62mm rounds due to the extra logistics), so I guess the question here would be are each of these torpedoes deployed normally by a certain class of warship? Such that a fleet has a,b & c class ships, so it needs 1,2,3 class torpedoes. Or is the menagerie of torpedoes more driven by artistic reasons? As lots of the same bland torpedoes would be boring to draw and boring to look at I imagine...

N.B. In a completely unrelated note, I also looked at your recent concepts for the Stars in Shadow project Arioch, and other than just being awesome, it immediately struck me that the Death's Head faction's colours of yellow and black instantly matched that of the Death's Head Hawk Moth (or rather the Acherontia atropos species). Was that intentional, or a rather a pretty cool coincidence?

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

Smithy wrote:In a bit of free time I've managed to claw in recently, I felt like obliging my somewhat "anoraky" tendencies, and scanned through the Umiak lore and technology. I noticed a slight inconstancy however with regards to Umiak plasma weapons. On the warship class page seven plasma focus types are described with Medium range & short range versions of the Heavy, Medium and Light plasma focus plus a PD plasma cannon. The weaps page however only lists five umiak plasma weapons. So I guess I was just curious to whether this is just a mistake being that both pages are time stamped a year apart?
There's a combination of some mis-classification and some inconsistent nomenclature there. I'll clean it up when I get the chance -- thanks for bringing it up. The material difference is that the ship list describes 3 variants of the MR focus while the weapon list only has one. The medium and heavy versions of the MR are the same thing, and the light version only appears on one ship.
Smithy wrote:Another curiosity is the Umiak-Morat Blasters which don't appear to be equipped on Umiak ship classes, are those then only normally found on Morat ships, and was it ever the intention for morat ships to be seen?
The Umiak don't have classes per se; each ship is individually designed. The list of ships shows typical examples in each size/role category, but shapes and individual weapons loadouts vary widely from ship to ship. Generally, the builders will make use of whatever parts are available locally, and so many of the Umiak ships manufactured in the Morat region do use blasters. Also, we will see Morat-built ships.
Smithy wrote:Also with regards to the vast number of varieties of umiak torpedoes, which logistically would present a considerable challenge (real life example would be for instance that British, US and most NATO infantry deploy with the FN minimi to keep all rounds in the platoon 5.56mm, and try to avoid 7.62mm rounds due to the extra logistics), so I guess the question here would be are each of these torpedoes deployed normally by a certain class of warship? Such that a fleet has a,b & c class ships, so it needs 1,2,3 class torpedoes. Or is the menagerie of torpedoes more driven by artistic reasons? As lots of the same bland torpedoes would be boring to draw and boring to look at I imagine...
The Umiak resist standardization, and ammunition is the one area in which they are forced to standardize to a certain extent... but even so they have a wide variety of torpedo standards. I'm sure this must be a logistical nightmare, but that's the way the Umiak like it.
Smithy wrote:N.B. In a completely unrelated note, I also looked at your recent concepts for the Stars in Shadow project Arioch, and other than just being awesome, it immediately struck me that the Death's Head faction's colours of yellow and black instantly matched that of the Death's Head Hawk Moth (or rather the Acherontia atropos species). Was that intentional, or a rather a pretty cool coincidence?
It's a coincidence. The yellow and black "Jolly Roger" color scheme predates the Death's Head version of the concept.

User avatar
Hālian
Posts: 766
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2011 4:28 am
Location: Central Florida
Contact:

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Hālian »

Did the Union, Hierarchy, etc ever use ballistic firearms? If so, who was the last to phase them out, and when?
Image
Don't delay, join today!

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

Carl Miller wrote:Did the Union, Hierarchy, etc ever use ballistic firearms? If so, who was the last to phase them out, and when?
If you're talking about small arms, both the Union and Hierarchy still use them.

User avatar
saint of m
Posts: 137
Joined: Sat Jul 30, 2011 8:10 am

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by saint of m »

You mention that the Umiak are OCD. At best this is hyper detail oriented. At worse, they worry about every little thing, espesialy when there is no need to (often almost ritualizing the process and have to fallow it to a tee or have a Blue Screen of Death effect on their brain). Yes this is an over simplification of the disability, but this sounds like some of my relatives.

Has this ever been exploited as a weakness either amongdt themselves in wars past or with the present conflict?

User avatar
Hālian
Posts: 766
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2011 4:28 am
Location: Central Florida
Contact:

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Hālian »

Who is the head of state of the Umiak Hierarchy? and what is their title?
Image
Don't delay, join today!

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

saint of m wrote:You mention that the Umiak are OCD. At best this is hyper detail oriented. At worse, they worry about every little thing, espesialy when there is no need to (often almost ritualizing the process and have to fallow it to a tee or have a Blue Screen of Death effect on their brain). Yes this is an over simplification of the disability, but this sounds like some of my relatives. Has this ever been exploited as a weakness either amongdt themselves in wars past or with the present conflict?
The Umiak as a group are detail-oriented and decentralized; this sometimes means that the individual moving parts don't always have the big picture in mind, but that's sort of by design... the Umiak central command deliberately leaves most local commanders in dark on a lot of information. This is partly a cultural preference, but partly a strategic necessity in a war against a telepathic enemy who are exceptional interrogators. Most of the time, this practice fits in fine with the Umiak modus operandi; most Umiak operations are routine and very well defined: either defend this location, or conduct an attrition attack on this location and inflict as much harm as you can (if you can make it back, great... if not, that's fine too). However, when the plan breaks down, as it did during the Loroi Semoset offensive, the Umiak forces can suffer from a lack of decisive direction that can be exploited by a clever commander.

At an individual level, not all Umiak are the same; some are more obsessive than others, and some are more flexible.
Carl Miller wrote:Who is the head of state of the Umiak Hierarchy? and what is their title?
There is no single nominal head of state. The Hierarchy is run by a massive bureaucracy, headed at the top by a Byzantine arrangement of councils and committees. It's always true that if you go high enough you'll find one individual who makes the decisions, but few outside the corridors of power (even among the Umiak population) know who that is.

User avatar
GeoModder
Posts: 1038
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:31 pm

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by GeoModder »

Arioch wrote:There is no single nominal head of state. The Hierarchy is run by a massive bureaucracy, headed at the top by a Byzantine arrangement of councils and committees. It's always true that if you go high enough you'll find one individual who makes the decisions, but few outside the corridors of power (even among the Umiak population) know who that is.
Would it be fair to say the individual(s) making the decisions more or less happen to roll in these decision-making slots due to circumstances?
Image

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

GeoModder wrote:
Arioch wrote:There is no single nominal head of state. The Hierarchy is run by a massive bureaucracy, headed at the top by a Byzantine arrangement of councils and committees. It's always true that if you go high enough you'll find one individual who makes the decisions, but few outside the corridors of power (even among the Umiak population) know who that is.
Would it be fair to say the individual(s) making the decisions more or less happen to roll in these decision-making slots due to circumstances?
It's not a formal position. Umiak humility and dislike of the concept of despotism means that most of the titled positions (like committee chair or speaker) are functionaries that are precluded by rule from exercising much real power; nevertheless, in any organized group there's always going to be one top dog, whether formal or informal. One becomes top dog by cultivating allies or building coalitions or crushing enemies or amassing personal power and influence or by being a master manipulator or by being feared by both allies and enemies alike... or all of the above.

User avatar
saint of m
Posts: 137
Joined: Sat Jul 30, 2011 8:10 am

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by saint of m »

Do the Umiake and their Allies know where the main worlds of their Loroi are and vice versa, and can't get to it because of the military forces between them and their goal?

Aside from the sporadic nature of Umiake fleets (with Ships being outdated flying with ones that are state of the art) are there any other noticeably weaknesses the Umiake have that have been exploited/are exploitable?

Are there any allied races on either side of the conflict that will like humans a whole whole lot from the get go (either as friends or a side dish with a light salad...Space opera, had to put that in) or are they mostly going to distrust the pink skins?

fredgiblet
Moderator
Posts: 983
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:02 pm

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by fredgiblet »

saint of m wrote:Do the Umiake and their Allies know where the main worlds of their Loroi are and vice versa, and can't get to it because of the military forces between them and their goal?
The Umiak almost certainly know where the Loroi homeworlds are since they've captured so many of them and had them for so long. I don't think the Loroi have detailed information about Umiak space and I'm not certain how much difference it would make if they did. The information we've been given indicates to ME that the Umiak would likely be unfazed by the loss of their homeworld, far less than the worlds it would take to reach them at least.

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

saint of m wrote:Do the Umiake and their Allies know where the main worlds of their Loroi are and vice versa, and can't get to it because of the military forces between them and their goal?
The Umiak had a pretty complete map of Loroi territory even before the war; although Umiak traders were only allowed in frontier systems, they had contact with many other species (some of whom are now on the Umiak side) who had regular dealings with the Loroi. Since then, the Umiak have captured multiple Loroi planets, and held them for more than ten years. At this point, there is very little about the Loroi that the Umiak do not know.

The Loroi picture of Umiak territory is much more fragmentary. The Umiak have a very closed society, and movement within Umiak territory is tightly restricted. The Loroi are very good at interrogation, but prisoners can't give up information they don't know. Loroi intelligence has a pretty good picture of the near portion of Umiak territory, and a cursory idea of the layout of the Umiak heartland and its major production centers, but they know very little about the far portion or even how far it extends.

These main worlds can't be directly attacked for the same reason that the Allies couldn't attack Berlin in 1941: there are enemy forces in the way.
saint of m wrote:Aside from the sporadic nature of Umiake fleets (with Ships being outdated flying with ones that are state of the art) are there any other noticeably weaknesses the Umiake have that have been exploited/are exploitable?
If there had been, the war would probably be over by now.
saint of m wrote:Are there any allied races on either side of the conflict that will like humans a whole whole lot from the get go (either as friends or a side dish with a light salad...Space opera, had to put that in)
Yes.

User avatar
RedDwarfIV
Posts: 398
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2014 12:22 am

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by RedDwarfIV »

Given the way FTL works in Outsider, fleets would have to physically go through enemy forces to reach a target. They can't warp all the way to their destination - they have to go one star at a time. And if you don't have accurate survey maps of enemy territory, finding traversable jump links between stars is going to be difficult and dangerous. You could lose a whole task force to an unexpected gas giant because you didn't know it was there.
If every cloud had a silver lining, there would be a lot more plane crashes.

User avatar
saint of m
Posts: 137
Joined: Sat Jul 30, 2011 8:10 am

Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by saint of m »

I am under the impression that most recources can be easily gathered by strip minning astroids as any given large one could have more precious metals, iron, hydrogen, and other materials humans haved used in construction, technology, and so on then has been dug up on Earth.

That said, what reasources could the Umiak need on a plannet other then organics?

Also, what do they eat and how do they produce their food?

I can guess genetic manipulation on some level. Earthlings have done for as long as we figured out how to tame critters under selective breeding, with only more chemical and cellar level modification done in the last few years, so I can see them taking the next fifty steps ahead of us.

Post Reply